The Spatial Analysis of Elections and Committees: Four Decades of Research

It has been more than thirty five years since the publication of Downs's (1957) seminal volume on elections and spatial theory and more than forty since Black and Newing (1951) offered their analysis of majority rule and committees. Thus, in response to the question "What have we accomplished since then?" it is not unreasonable to suppose that the appropriate answer would be "a great deal." Unfortunately, reality admits of only a more ambiguous response.