Empowering of candidates and parties in single term vs re-election schemes

Abstract

Agenda setting is a key feature of political systems. We propose a novel approach to contrast the respective power of candidates and parties when bargaining over agenda, which consists in comparing the simulations of four institutional models: single term with candidates proposing, single term with parties proposing, two-term with candidates proposing and two-term with parties proposing. Valences of candidates and preferences for alternation of voters are two important components of the analysis. Simulations establish that two-term schemes are inefficient, while term limits is a second order component of the agenda setting bargaining, while the offering side is the main component.