Why does politics compress issues into a single linear dimension?
I suppose it makes sense in a two party system, but why do parliamentary systems with several small parties mainly have parties on the extremes, rather than mainly having parties with orthogonal preferences that could ally with either major party? In principle, a Green party ought not to care much about the left-right access, but in practice it cares very much.
Why does politics compress issues into a single linear dimension?
I don’t know, it might be an artifact of representative systems in the West where the all important thing is getting the majority vote. “Left” vs. “Right” being a strong signal of who your allies tend to be seems to work pretty well descriptively for most people’s political identities and preferences.
Why does politics compress issues into a single linear dimension?
I suppose it makes sense in a two party system, but why do parliamentary systems with several small parties mainly have parties on the extremes, rather than mainly having parties with orthogonal preferences that could ally with either major party? In principle, a Green party ought not to care much about the left-right access, but in practice it cares very much.
I don’t know, it might be an artifact of representative systems in the West where the all important thing is getting the majority vote. “Left” vs. “Right” being a strong signal of who your allies tend to be seems to work pretty well descriptively for most people’s political identities and preferences.