Politicians tactics to win votes

Politicians tactics to gain votes.

Abstract taken from http://http//www.jstor.org/pss/2586911 Viewed on 10/04/2010 on line.
"We model the electoral politics of redistribution when voters and parties care about inequality in addition to their private concerns for consumption and votes, respectively. Ideological concerns about income redistribution lead each party to adopt a general proportional income tax, adjusted to appeal to the ideological leanings of high "clout" groups, with disproportionately many "swing" voters, which the parties also ply with pork-barrel projects. Our results relate to "Director's Law," which says that redistributive politics favors middle classes at the expense of both rich and poor. "

Why can't the politicians concerned just be truthful about their policies? It seems to me that with every election we (by we I mean the British public) always end up worse off. We are told by each party that their policy is the only way forwards and that they have the interests of the working man at the forefront of their minds. Why then does it seem to me that the man who chooses not to work or defraud the system is the one who gets all the help?