Working Paper

On the Size of the Winning Set in the Presence of Interest Groups

Vjollca Sadiraj, Jan Tuinstra, Frans van Winden
CESifo, Munich, 2006

CESifo Working Paper No. 1698

Interest groups are introduced in a spatial model of electoral competition between two political parties. We show that the presence of these interest groups increases the winning set, which is the set of policy platforms for the challenger that will defeat the incumbent. Therefore interest groups enhance the probability of the challenger winning the election.

Keywords: spatial voting models, electoral competition, winning set, interest groups