Strategic ambiguity in electoral competition

Many have observed that political candidates running for election are often purposefully expressing themselves in vague and ambiguous terms. In this p aper, we provide a simple formal model of this phenomenon. We model the ele ctoral competition between two candidates as a two-stage game. In the first stage of the game, two candidates simultaneously choose their ideologies, in the second stage, they simultaneously choose their levels of ambiguity. Ambiguity, although disliked by voters, may be sustained in equilibrium. Mo re interestingly, we provide insight into the causes for ideological differ entiation by showing that politicians may wish to differentiate themselves ideologically so that they can afford to become more ambiguous.