Ideological Tolerance, Voter Abstention, and Party Polarization: An Agent-Based Extension of the Hotelling Model

<title>Abstract</title> <p>This paper develops an agent-based extension of the Hotelling model in which voter participation depends on ideological distance. We introduce a tolerance threshold that determines whether voters abstain when candidates are too far from their preferred positions. The model shows that this participation constraint can destabilize the classical median voter equilibrium. When tolerance is low and voter preferences are concentrated, candidates tend to diverge and compete for localized voter groups. As tolerance increases or voter preferences become more dispersed, convergence toward the center re-emerges. The results also reveal non-monotonic relationships between voter dispersion and candidate polarization, indicating shifts between median-focused and peripheral competition. These findings provide a micro-foundation linking voter abstention to political polarization.</p>