There are, of course, many issues for which politicians do not face such a problem because the distribution of preferences will not be normal. For example, preferences on abortion policy and gun control in the contemporary United States are partly bimodal, with fairly sharply defined pro and con positions. In the face of the absolutist stance of some opponents of any abortion for any reason, the arguments of such writers as the lawyers Ronald Dworkin (1993) and Laurence Tribe (1990) that the two sides are not so far apart are prima facie unconvincing

XREF: Connects to public opinion and political polarization research; the normality assumption underlies median voter theorem and Downsian spatial models.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 770