Economics 101 for Catholics THE ECONOMICS OF POLITICS: PUBLIC CHOICE I—THE MEDIAN VOTER RULE

Nov 1, 2006

During the election season, many Catholics wonder why so many Catholic politicians do not vote according to their professed beliefs.  It is disheartening to have one famous Catholic politician say publicly that he takes his faith very seriously and a woman’s right to choose abortion very seriously as well.  The answer can be found in a relatively new school of economics called Public Choice.  Since economics studies the actions of people in general, the laws of economics, logically, apply to the actions of persons in public office as anywhere else.  In this case, we will study what is called the “median voter rule.”

A normal statistical curve looks somewhat like a camel’s hump with a line straight up the middle.  That middle line is the average.  Assuming that this is a curve of voters, 68.2% of all the voters fall within one standard deviation of either side of this average voter.  This is the majority. Now, the United States, not being a Catholic country, cannot boast of the average voter agreeing with the most of the tenets of the Church on moral-political issues.  So unless the candidate is from a state or district where the mean (or median) voter agrees with the Church on public issues, he will not be able to get majority support.  This is why, at times, candidates will speak to religious groups and assure them that he agrees with them, and then, if he happens to get elected, votes inconsistently—if he wants to keep his job.  This politician might have gotten elected the first time by avoiding any controversial stands, so that even the medial voter liked him.  But in office, a stand must be taken on issues that appear in legislation.  This becomes public record, and that is when we see a movement to the “center,” i. e., waffling on serious issues.  After all, who wants to come home and tell his wife that after moving all the way to Washington, they now have to go back and he has to get a real job.

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