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. 2007 May 1;104(18):7351-6.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0702071104. Epub 2007 Apr 23.

Political polarization

Avinash K Dixit  1 , Jörgen W Weibull
Affiliations

Political polarization

Avinash K Dixit et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Failures of government policies often provoke opposite reactions from citizens; some call for a reversal of the policy, whereas others favor its continuation in stronger form. We offer an explanation of such polarization, based on a natural bimodality of preferences in political and economic contexts and consistent with Bayesian rationality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Polarization illustrated by using cumulative distribution functions.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Polarization illustrated by using density functions.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Prior densities for different types of voters.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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