ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the general picture of the democratic process. It shows how the great divide of modern policies can be measured and used to trace the government and party alternation which eventually brings public policy into line with popular preferences for it. The commonest way of getting electors to state their preferences is to ask in a survey if they agree or disagree with a policy proposal, thus framing the issue for them, which is what happens in real life with government policy proposals. The chapter explores policy preferences ‘spatially’ along a line. Self-placements along an actual ‘ladder’ do reveal the actual distance between groupings, however, and also allow them to express their preferences more exactly. The evidence for electoral centrism between left and right does not come solely from self-placements. Electors and voters have usually been seen as simply reacting to the party choices available.
