Answer to Question 1
No, perfect political competition is a useful benchmark but does not describe many real-world situations. There are three reasons why political competition may be restricted.
First, free entry to the political arena is difficult to achieve in practice because only well-organized and established parties can compete in elections, and this tendency has only become greater as the importance of money in politics has increased.
Second, politicians and parties have ideological biases, and a party with a left-wing bias would not campaign with a promise of low taxes even if this may be what the median voter wants.
Third, politicians are often highly self-interested and sometimes even untrustworthy. Becausetheir promises may not be very reliable, they may deviate from implementing the median voter's policy preferences.
A-head: CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND POLITICAL ECONOMY
Concept: Perfect political competition
Answer to Question 2
Operating profit is equal to total revenue minus total variable cost.
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