The most common example of a spatial model is a political spectrum or compass, such as the traditional left-right axis,[2] but issue spaces can be more complex.
For example, a study of German voters found at least four dimensions were required to adequately represent all political parties.
A previous study by the same authors had found similar results, comparing 6 different models to the ANES data.
[9]) The earliest roots of the model are the one-dimensional Hotelling's law of 1929 and Black's median voter theorem of 1948.
[10] Anthony Downs, in his 1957 book An Economic Theory of Democracy, further developed the model to explain the dynamics of party competition, which became the foundation for much follow-on research.