This paper analyzes a spatial model of political competition in which a politician is responsible for two tasks -- policy choice and policy implementation. The policy outcome is determined by the politician's pre-electoral choice of policy and a costly post-electoral effort required for implementing the selected policy. I show that two policy-motivated candidates adjust their pre-electoral promises anticipating a costly post-electoral effort needed for bringing those promises to life. In particular, each candidate realizes that if elected, he will put a costly effort into the policy implementation, and so does not want to compromise on a policy issue before the election. My results predict policy divergence in equilibrium and, for some parameter values, existence of equilibrium with asymmetric electoral platforms.
Dieser Eintrag ist Teil der Universitätsbibliographie.
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