A SPATIAL THEORY OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING

In order to explore the content of electoral campaigns, this paper mak es two modifications to Hotelling's model of spatial competition. Firs t, we assume that agents inherit initial locations and engage in costl y relocation. Second, an agent's relocation is affected by her rival's actions. We investigate how a candidate allocates resources between p ositive campaigning-which influences voters' perceptions of her own id eology-and negative campaigning-which influences her opponent's percei ved ideology. Our theory predicts that the candidate who is perceived as having less attractive personal attributes runs a relatively more n egative campaign. The theory's implications are illustrated for the 19 88 presidential election. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.