Individual strategy and manipulation of issues

Much of the existing literature on strategic voting assumes that the issue (i.e. the set of alternatives out of which society has to make its choice) is given. Attention is then focussed on whether any coalition of individuals will find it profitable to disrupt the sincere voting situation. In this paper, we analyse the problem of strategy in sponsoring alternatives, using Farquharson's notion of sophisticated voting. It is shown that sincere sponsoring of alternatives is unlikely to take place under a plausible assumption regarding how individuals vote once the issue is determined.