Question

In Unit 6, you learned about the Median Voter Theorem and how politicians will do best in the election if they identify the median voter’s position in whatever constituency they are appealing to. Why does this strategy sometimes result in a candidate seeming to change his or her positions when moving from a primary to a general election? Now, give an example of a situation where you think a candidate either attempted to follow the median voter, or a situation in which he or she did NOT attempt to move to the median voter’s position. Do you think the candidate in your example behaved strategically? Do you think he or she behaved ethically?

Answer 1

Answer - According to the Median Voter theorem states that " a majority rule voting system will select the outcome most preferred by the median voter". So, in the case of primary election which is meant to elect a party's candidate for position -in-question .In this case the Median Voter Theorem works well because in this scenario every candidate want to enjoy the advantages of " Median voter Theorem" where as in the General election which is meant to elect who occupies the position itself but in these kind of scenarios where a common solution is available Median voter Theorem has it's limitations and in general elections every candidate has to take different position on different subjects and general elections are not uni dimensional and most of the times these positions are politically motivated so, that's why candidate usually don't follow Median voter Theorem,

Example- Where candidate either attempted to follow the median voter - Scenario where there is a country wide or party wise consensus on a subject " Issues like fight against corruption" then candidate usually follow the Median voter theorem.

Second part where candidate did not follow the median voter theorem these are the scenarios where candidate only want to please it's supporters or certain section of society "Like decrease in the Tax on the wealthy" in these case candidate does not follow median voter theorem.

Yes when a candidate decided to does not follow median voter theorem candidate behaved strategically ,because in view of candidate this different position from median voter theorem increase there chances to win or increase it's popularity in certain section of society  .

As far as he or she behaved ethically this totally belongs to the candidates  own ethical standard which can not be generalised.