Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-g9frx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-17T06:11:40.843Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Coordinated voting in sequential and simultaneous elections: some experimental evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Sugato Dasgupta ,
Kirk A. Randazzo ,
Reginald S. Sheehan  and
Kenneth C. Williams
Sugato Dasgupta
Affiliation:
Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Kirk A. Randazzo
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA
Reginald S. Sheehan
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Kenneth C. Williams*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
*
e-mail: willia59@msu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper studies a situation wherein a set of voters choose between two alternatives in the presence of a payoff externality. Specifically, regardless of her intrinsic preference, a voter's payoff is maximized should she vote for the alternative that garners a majority of the votes cast. Are votes coordinated on a single alternative? Using laboratory experiments, we examine voting patterns in sequential voting and simultaneous voting elections. Across both election types, we also vary the amount of information that an individual voter has regarding the intrinsic preferences of the other voters. Our main findings are as follows. In the “low” information treatment, sequential voting elections facilitate coordinated voting. However, in the “high” information treatment, voting patterns are not dependent on how the election is structured.

Keywords

Payoff externalityCoordinated votesSequential electionSimultaneous electionInformation

JEL classification

D72: Political Processes: Rent-Seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior D82: Asymmetric and Private Information • Mechanism Design
Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Economics , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 315 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Economic Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10683-007-9167-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

References

Austen-Smith, D., & Banks, J. (1996). Information aggregation, rationality, and the Condorcet jury theorem. American Political Science Review, 90, 34–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, L. (1985). Expectations and preferences in presidential nomination campaigns. American Political Science Review, 79, 804–815.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, L. (1988). Presidential Primaries and the Dynamics of Public Choice. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battaglini, M. (2005). Sequential voting with abstention. Games and Economic Behavior, 51, 445–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battaglini, M., Morton, R., & Palfrey, T. (2005). Efficiency, equity, and timing in voting mechanisms. Princeton University and New York University, mimeo.Google Scholar
Bikhchandani, S., Hirshleifer, D., & Welch, I. (1992). A theory of fads, fashion, custom, and cultural change as informational cascades. Journal of Political Economy, 100, 992–1026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callander, S. (2004). Bandwagons and momentum in sequential voting. Northwestern University, mimeo.Google Scholar
Coleman, S. (2004). The effects of social conformity on collective voting behavior. Political Analysis, 12, 76–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dekel, E., & Piccione, M. (2000). Sequential voting procedures in symmetric binary elections. Journal of Political Economy, 108, 34–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckel, C., & Holt, C. (1989). Strategic voting in agenda-controlled committee experiments. American Economic Review, 79, 763–773.Google Scholar
Epstein, L., & Knight, J. (1998). The Choices Justices Make. Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Feddersen, T., & Pesendorfer, W. (1997). Voting behavior and information aggregation in elections with private information. Econometrica, 65, 1029–1058.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feddersen, T., & Pesendorfer, W. (1998). Convicting the innocent: the inferiority of unanimous jury verdicts. American Political Science Review, 92, 23–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, M. (1990). Opinion assignment procedures and conference practices in state supreme courts. Judicature, 73, 209–214.Google Scholar
Krutz, G., & Patterson, S. (2001). Hitching a Ride: Omnibus Legislating in the US Congress (Parliaments and Legislatures). Columbus: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Morton, R., & Williams, K. (1999). Informational asymmetries and simultaneous versus sequential voting. American Political Science Review, 93, 51–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morton, R., & Williams, K. (2001). Learning by Voting: Sequential Choice in Presidential Primaries and other Elections. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oleszek, W. (1984). Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process. Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Rosenne, S. (1995). The World Court: What It is and How It Works. London: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Wilson, R., & Herzberg, R. (1988). Results on sophisticated voting in an experimental setting. The Journal of Politics, 50, 471–486.Google Scholar
Wooldridge, J. (2002). Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Dasgupta et al. supplementary material

Dasgupta et al. supplementary material 1
Download Dasgupta et al. supplementary material(File)
File 212.4 KB
Supplementary material: File

Dasgupta et al. supplementary material

Dasgupta et al. supplementary material 2
Download Dasgupta et al. supplementary material(File)
File 3.8 KB
Supplementary material: File

Dasgupta et al. supplementary material

Dasgupta et al. supplementary material 3
Download Dasgupta et al. supplementary material(File)
File 143.9 KB