Vote thresholds set how insulated leaders are from opposition

Evidence

We model ”insulation” as the share of votes needed to block legislation to pass, or, to put it in reverse, we look at the size of the (super)majority that the leader has to command to pass legislation. — Philippe Aghion, Alberto Alesina, and Francesco Trebbi, Endogenous Political Institutions, 17

Categorization

• DEFINE: Insulation is formally defined as the blocking minority’s vote share, or inversely the supermajority a leader needs.
• XREF: Connects to standard veto-player and supermajority literature in comparative politics.