I'm not really taking a position on how policy change is justified by elections or base vs. swing voters. Because I'm not sure what my position would be. It's hard to know what motivated voters in any given election and it's hard to say that elected officials should be morally bound even to those issues. I'm just saying that elections are self-correcting. I.e., if the people vote for candidates on an issue, and they don't deliver, and the people care enough about the issue, they'll elect new people.
And the system actually works much more efficiently that that suggests. Elected officials care about reelection and tend to be quite in touch with what their constituency wants. Consequently, if their constituency really cares about an issue, the representative generally will heed that position. Frank Cross Herbert D. Kelleher Centennial Professor of Business Law CBA 5.202 University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78712
