How different are voters in competitive elections from voters in uncompetitive elections? If voters in competitive elections are treated differently by politicians, if they respond to different stimuli, and if their voting calculus is different, then how much can we learn from studies that...

We review a large formal literature on economic models of voting and electoral politics. We discuss two broad classes of model: those focusing on preference aggregation and those that look at elections as mechanisms of information aggregation. We also explore the role of elections in situations...

The election of an African American as President of the United States has raised questions as to the continued relevance and even constitutionality of various provisions of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Barack Obama’s apparent success among whites in 2008 has caused some to question the...