Grofman, Bernard. "Downs and Two-Party Convergence". Annual Review of Political Science, Vol.7, No.1 (2004): 25-46.

Grofman, Bernard. "Downs and Two-Party Convergence". Annual Review of Political Science, Vol.7, No.1 (2004): 25-46.

• This article is written as a survey of contemporary research concerning rebuttals and defenses of the theories of Dr. Anthony Downs on the convergence of two-party political systems towards a centrist position through ration-choice theory on the part of political parties.
• The deviation of elected officials from moderate positions has cast doubt on traditional Downsian theory of convergence, as well as rational-choice theory in general (25). The author argues that this is to be expected in conditions where some of the criteria for rational-choice theory are violated (26).
• The assumptions of rational-choice theory in politics, as laid out by Dr. Downs are a two-party system, single-round elections decided by plurality vote, a left-right split between parties, well-defined policy positions, voters only favor candidates based on ideological proximity, candidates only care about winning elections, and parties will adapt their policies to match perceived public preferences (26-27).
• A system with more than two parties (27), more than one round in elections (28-30), closed primaries (30), multiple constituencies (30-31), proportional representation systems (31), policy dimensions beyond left-right (31-32), ambiguous policy positions (32), accurate voter comprehension of policy issues (33), candidates who are very distant from voter ideologies (33-34), situations where voters make decisions not based on policy positions (34-36), candidates choose ideological stances distinct from those that will secure victory (37-38), candidates improperly assess voter opinion (39), or political parties do not function as unitary organizations (39-40) will differ from convergence theory.