Demand for Durable and Non-Durable Political Goods

Election participants include candidates, interest groups aligned with specific direct-vote ballot measures or referenda and political parties. Armed with a budget of resources, these participants consume a variety of political goods designed to produce the utility associated with a successful election outcome. However these various participants have very different political life cycles: in most cases special interests will participate in only one election or generation in a given jurisdiction; candidates for office can expect a limited number of elections or generations in which they are candidates for a particular office (and perhaps only two of three if term limits are in force); where as political parties can be thought of as infinitely lived. These different political life cycles will impact the choice of political goods by the participants with longer lived participants being more likely to consume durable political goods such as data bases and grass roots organization structures.