Spatial model of voting
Model simulating voters in an election / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In political science and social choice theory, the spatial (sometimes ideological or ideal-point) model of voting is a mathematical model of voting behavior. It describes voters and candidates as varying along one or more axes (or dimensions), where each axis represents an attribute of the candidate that voters care about.[1]:ā14ā Voters are modeled as having an ideal point in this space and voting for the candidates closest to them.
The most common example of a spatial model is a political spectrum or compass, such as the traditional left-right axis,[2] but issue spaces can be more complex. For example, a study of German voters found at least four dimensions were required to adequately represent all political parties.[2]
Besides ideology, a dimension can represent any attribute of the candidates, such as their views on one particular issue.[3][4][5] It can also represent to non-ideological properties of the candidates, such as their age, experience, or health.[3]