Why Vote for Losers?
解释在简单多数选举中，为何会出现政党立场分化与选票分散现象，认为当政党机会主义、中间选民位置不确定且选举重复时，投票给输家能增加选举信息含量，并促使主流政党向极端立场偏移。
Voting theory generally concludes that, in first-past-the-post elections, all votes should go to effective candidates (Duverger's Law), and parties should adopt a similar platform (median voter theorem). However, such predictions are not always met in practice. We show why divergence and vote dispersion is a natural outcome when (a) parties are opportunistic, (b) there is uncertainty on the position of the median voter and (c) elections are repeated. "Voting for losers" increases the informational content of elections, and may induce mainstream parties to relocate towards extremists. As a result, to maximize their probability of being elected, they do not adopt median platforms, but instead diverge to a certain extent. © 2003 by the European Economic Association.