Moderating government

We consider a model where policy motivated citizens vote in two simultaneouselections, one for the President who is elected by majority rule, in a singlenational district, and one for the Congressmen, each of whom is elected by majorityrule in a local district. The policy to be implemented depends not only on who iselected President but also on the composition of the Congress. We characterize theequilibria of the model using a conditional sincerity concept that takes into account thepossibility that some voters may be simultaneously decisive in both elections. Such aconcept emerges naturally in a model with trembles. A crucial feature of the solutionis the moderation of Government. Our results are robust to several modifications ofthe model.