Write a short essay in which you answer the following four questions about the US presidential election of 2000. Each of the four questions will be graded as follows:
A: 18-20 points. Outstanding
B: 16-17 points Very good
C: 14-15 points Good
D: 12-13 points Marginal
R: <12 points Not good at all.
The same scale will be used to assign 20 more possible points for how well you frame your answers into a coherent essay, with beginning and closing paragraphs that introduce and conclude your points.

Please number the sections that deal with the following questions, to ease the process of grading.

1. Assess the dimensionality of the 2000 contest for president of the United States. Specifically, can you place Buchanan, Bush, Gore and Nader on a single dimension? Defend your answer.
    If you think it would take more than one dimension to display their positions in issue space, explain and defend this view.
    Draw the spatial diagram, which you will need to use to answer question 3.

2. In terms of issue positions, do you think that the array of options in your answer to question 1 provides an adequate choice to the American electorate?
    In your answer, consider explicitly a). the median voter theorem and its implications, and b). Buchanan's contention that the two parties are two wings on a single bird of prey.
    When you consider a) and b) be sure to consider the relevance of the Fable, and of the treatment of the issue of slavery in the presidential elections of the second party system.

3. Who do you think should win the 2000 presidential election, considering only the popular vote?
    Consider explicitly the five methods presented in class, and the top four candidates, with the following imprecise voting percentages: Gore 48, Bush 47, Nader 4, Buchanan 1.
    (The methods were plurality, plurality with runoff, Borda count, approval voting, and Condorcet. For approval voting, the simplest procedure would be to use two votes for each group, but you may want to consider differences in intensity.)
    Use the spatial model from question one to get preference orderings for each group. I recommend that you have four homogeneous groups, with each candidate representing the ideal point of that group, with the preference order as defined by the distances you generated in question 1.
    Please show your work in an appendix that will not count against your word limit. Specifically, list the preference orderings for each of the four groups, based on the distances defined in question 1. Show your calculations for the winner under each method. (I do not plan to read these, but if you say something that I find implausible, I would like to verify your reasoning.)

4. Now move from the popular vote as aggregated nationally to the electoral college.
    Compare the electoral college as it now stands to your choice among the methods of direct popular vote, and make a recommendation about keeping or changing the present system. Defend your answer.
    (Consider what might happen when elections are as close as the 2000 election.)

Aim at about 750 words, or roughly three double-spaced pages, plus appendix. Please list your word count, and I will give you some latitude, say between 700 and 800 words. If you want to use between 800 and 1,000, you must have some complication, such as a second dimension for question 1, or a negative answer to question 2 (the options are not adequate, relative to standards like those in the Fable or slavery in the second party system).

You do not need and citations for a good paper.  However, if  you choose to mention other sources, or have an assertion that needs documentation, use footnotes that give full citations of where your information came from.