Abstention Because of Indifference and Alienation, and its Consequences for Party Competition: A Simple Psychological Model

Abstract

The basic idea behind this paper is that voters have to be able to distinguish the positions of the parties. Following Weber's Law this depends on the relative distance with respect to their own optimal position. Using such a measure a model of voter participation is developed which allows for abstention because of indifference as well as alienation. Two variants of this model are applied on a two parties contest: One where participation is proportional to the relative distance and another one where voters participate if this distance is above a certain convergence to the median voter's position.

Keywords: Voting Behaviour, Abstention, Perception of Differences, Party Competition

JEL Classification: H19, P16