When Does Party Convergence Persist under Alienation-Based Abstention?
In the standard Downsian model, two office-seeking parties converge to the median voter. However alienated voters may abstain and turn out only for a party within their tolerance radius. For single-peaked voter distributions, convergence survives but relocates to a central voter, the median of the electorate that participates at the convergent platform. However single-peakedness of the voter distribution is an empirically contested assumption. So we first characterize pure-strategy equilibrium for any continuous voter distribution. For general distributions, pure-strategy equilibrium can fail to exist or be non-unique, and existence of equilibrium need not persist as the tolerance radius of the voters increases. In order to resolve these issues, we propose a fundamental object: \emph{centripetal} structure for which there is a single anchor platform toward which competition always pulls. We show this structure produces convergence at equilibrium under alienation based abstention. Our main result concerns the emergence and persistence of this new structure as the tolerance radius increases. Even though equilibria for office-seeking parties themselves can vanish and reappear as the radius grows, once centripetal structure emerges, it persists as long as the midpoint voter is not alienated. Moreover, the centripetal structure always emerges, and this structure classifies equilibrium completely when parties are policy motivated.