Spatial theory

Abstract

One of the fundamental building blocks in the analysis of political phenomena is the representation of preferences. Without some means of capturing the essence of goals and trade-offs for individual choices, the mechanics of the public choice method are stalled. While there are many ways of representing preferences, the single most commonly used approach is the spatial model. The idea of conceiving preference in a kind of space is actually quite ancient, as the quote from Aristotle's Politics below shows. Furthermore, there are hints of several topics of modern spatial theory, including the power of the middle, and the problem of instability in political processes. © 2008 Springer-Verlag US.