ABSTRACT
Spatial models of politics are characterised by the postulation of some kind of underlying political space that can be used to describe the preferences and choices of key actors. Such spaces are intellectual constructs, bordering on the metaphysical, that provide theorists with a common conceptual language with which to describe specific models of political choice. This common language relies upon an explicit analogy with physical space when it uses terms such as “distance”, “movement”, “dimensions” and “direction” to describe the preferences and choices of political decision makers.
