Outbidding
Outbidding is a framework for analyzing competitive political systems.
Contents
Formulation
The theory is meant for competitive democratic systems. It all rests on political entrepreneurship (i.e., building coalitions by promising benefits or policies to constituents). Naturally, the winning politician will be the one that promised the most (or outbidded the competition).
Within constituencies wherein the population homogeneously values a benefit, the outbidding is expected to lead to over-investment.
Within constituencies with deep social cleavages, the outbidding is expected to take the shape of identity politics (i.e., promising benefits or policies affecting an exclusion of an out-group) and lead to extremism.
Reading Notes
Political entrepreneurship and patterns of democratic instability in plural societies, Alvin Rabushka, Kenneth A. Shepsle, 1971
Politics in plural societies, Alvin Rabushka, Kenneth A. Shepsle, 1972
Has the Outbidding on Trade Protectionism Finally Ended?, Daniel W. Drezner, 2024