Summary: The Myth of the Rational Voter

Summary: The Myth of the Rational Voter PDF Author: Businessnews Publishing
Publisher:
ISBN: 9782512006275
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The must-read summary of Bryan Caplan's book: "The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies". This complete summary of "The Myth of the Rational Voter" by Bryan Caplan, a renowned economist and political commentator, presents his investigation into why voters are largely influenced by misconceptions, irrational beliefs and personal opinions. In his book, the author reveals how voters continue to elect the candidates that share their personal beliefs, which means that bad policies are chosen again and again due to public demand. Caplan boldly questions assumptions about America's politics and claims that democracy is failing because politicians choose bad policies to satisfy the electorate. Added-value of this summary: - Save time - Understand why uninformed voters pose a threat to the essence of democracy - Expand your knowledge of American politics and elections To learn more, read "The Myth of the Rational Voter" and find out the truth behind American politics and how irrational voters essentially hold all the power.

Summary: The Myth of the Rational Voter

Summary: The Myth of the Rational Voter PDF Author: Businessnews Publishing
Publisher:
ISBN: 9782512006275
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The must-read summary of Bryan Caplan's book: "The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies". This complete summary of "The Myth of the Rational Voter" by Bryan Caplan, a renowned economist and political commentator, presents his investigation into why voters are largely influenced by misconceptions, irrational beliefs and personal opinions. In his book, the author reveals how voters continue to elect the candidates that share their personal beliefs, which means that bad policies are chosen again and again due to public demand. Caplan boldly questions assumptions about America's politics and claims that democracy is failing because politicians choose bad policies to satisfy the electorate. Added-value of this summary: - Save time - Understand why uninformed voters pose a threat to the essence of democracy - Expand your knowledge of American politics and elections To learn more, read "The Myth of the Rational Voter" and find out the truth behind American politics and how irrational voters essentially hold all the power.

Summary: The Myth of the Rational Voter

Summary: The Myth of the Rational Voter PDF Author: BusinessNews Publishing,
Publisher: Primento
ISBN: 2511002280
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 18

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Book Description
The must-read summary of Bryan Caplan’s book: “The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies”. This complete summary of “The Myth of the Rational Voter” by Bryan Caplan, a renowned economist and political commentator, presents his investigation into why voters are largely influenced by misconceptions, irrational beliefs and personal opinions. In his book, the author reveals how voters continue to elect the candidates that share their personal beliefs, which means that bad policies are chosen again and again due to public demand. Caplan boldly questions assumptions about America’s politics and claims that democracy is failing because politicians choose bad policies to satisfy the electorate. Added-value of this summary: • Save time • Understand why uninformed voters pose a threat to the essence of democracy • Expand your knowledge of American politics and elections To learn more, read “The Myth of the Rational Voter” and find out the truth behind American politics and how irrational voters essentially hold all the power.

The Myth of the Rational Voter

The Myth of the Rational Voter PDF Author: Bryan Douglas Caplan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description
Caplan argues that voters continually elect politicians who either share their biases or else pretend to, resulting in bad policies winning again and again by popular demand. Calling into question our most basic assumptions about American politics, Caplan contends that democracy fails precisely because it does what voters want. Through an analysis of American's voting behavior and opinions on a range of economic issues, he makes the case that noneconomists suffer from four prevailing biases: they underestimate the wisdom of the market mechanism, distrust foreigners, undervalue the benefits of conserving labor, and pessimistically believe the economy is going from bad to worse. Caplan lays out several ways to make democratic government work better

The Myth of the Rational Voter

The Myth of the Rational Voter PDF Author: Bryan Caplan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In theory, democracy is a bulwark against socially harmful policies. In practice, however, democracies frequently adopt and maintain policies that are damaging. How can this paradox be explained? The influence of special interests and voter ignorance are two leading explanations. I offer an alternative story of how and why democracy fails. The central idea is that voters are worse than ignorant; they are, in a word, irrational - and they vote accordingly. Despite their lack of knowledge, voters are not humble agnostics; instead, they confidently embrace a long list of misconceptions. In the minds of many, Winston Churchill's famous aphorism cuts the conversation short: Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. But this saying overlooks the fact that governments vary in scope as well as form. In democracies the main alternative to majority rule is not dictatorship, but markets. A better understanding of voter irrationality advises us to rely less on democracy and more on the market.

Democracy for Realists

Democracy for Realists PDF Author: Christopher H. Achen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400888743
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description
Why our belief in government by the people is unrealistic—and what we can do about it Democracy for Realists assails the romantic folk-theory at the heart of contemporary thinking about democratic politics and government, and offers a provocative alternative view grounded in the actual human nature of democratic citizens. Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels deploy a wealth of social-scientific evidence, including ingenious original analyses of topics ranging from abortion politics and budget deficits to the Great Depression and shark attacks, to show that the familiar ideal of thoughtful citizens steering the ship of state from the voting booth is fundamentally misguided. They demonstrate that voters—even those who are well informed and politically engaged—mostly choose parties and candidates on the basis of social identities and partisan loyalties, not political issues. They also show that voters adjust their policy views and even their perceptions of basic matters of fact to match those loyalties. When parties are roughly evenly matched, elections often turn on irrelevant or misleading considerations such as economic spurts or downturns beyond the incumbents' control; the outcomes are essentially random. Thus, voters do not control the course of public policy, even indirectly. Achen and Bartels argue that democratic theory needs to be founded on identity groups and political parties, not on the preferences of individual voters. Now with new analysis of the 2016 elections, Democracy for Realists provides a powerful challenge to conventional thinking, pointing the way toward a fundamentally different understanding of the realities and potential of democratic government.

Against Democracy

Against Democracy PDF Author: Jason Brennan
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400888395
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
A bracingly provocative challenge to one of our most cherished ideas and institutions Most people believe democracy is a uniquely just form of government. They believe people have the right to an equal share of political power. And they believe that political participation is good for us—it empowers us, helps us get what we want, and tends to make us smarter, more virtuous, and more caring for one another. These are some of our most cherished ideas about democracy. But Jason Brennan says they are all wrong. In this trenchant book, Brennan argues that democracy should be judged by its results—and the results are not good enough. Just as defendants have a right to a fair trial, citizens have a right to competent government. But democracy is the rule of the ignorant and the irrational, and it all too often falls short. Furthermore, no one has a fundamental right to any share of political power, and exercising political power does most of us little good. On the contrary, a wide range of social science research shows that political participation and democratic deliberation actually tend to make people worse—more irrational, biased, and mean. Given this grim picture, Brennan argues that a new system of government—epistocracy, the rule of the knowledgeable—may be better than democracy, and that it's time to experiment and find out. A challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable, Against Democracy is essential reading for scholars and students of politics across the disciplines. Featuring a new preface that situates the book within the current political climate and discusses other alternatives beyond epistocracy, Against Democracy is a challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable.

The Ethics of Voting

The Ethics of Voting PDF Author: Jason Brennan
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691154449
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Cover; Contents; Acknowledgments; INTRODUCTION: Voting as an Ethical Issue; CHAPTER ONE: Arguments for a Duty to Vote; CHAPTER TWO: Civic Virtue without Politics; CHAPTER THREE: Wrongful Voting; CHAPTER FOUR: Deference and Abstention; CHAPTER FIVE: For the Common Good; CHAPTER SIX: Buying and Selling Votes; CHAPTER SEVEN: How Well Do Voters Behave?; AFTERWORD TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION: How to Vote Well; Notes; References; Index. - Nothing is more integral to democracy than voting. Most people believe that every citizen has the civic duty or moral obligation to vote, that any sincere vote is morally acceptable, and that buying, selling, or trading votes is inherently wrong. In this provocative book, Jason Brennan challenges our fundamental assumptions about voting, revealing why it is not a duty for most citizens--in fact, he argues, many people owe it to the rest of us not to vote. Bad choices at the polls can result in unjust laws, needless wars, and calamitous economic policies. Brennan shows why voters have duties to.

The Myth of Capitalism

The Myth of Capitalism PDF Author: Jonathan Tepper
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1394184069
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
The Myth of Capitalism tells the story of how America has gone from an open, competitive marketplace to an economy where a few very powerful companies dominate key industries that affect our daily lives. Digital monopolies like Google, Facebook and Amazon act as gatekeepers to the digital world. Amazon is capturing almost all online shopping dollars. We have the illusion of choice, but for most critical decisions, we have only one or two companies, when it comes to high speed Internet, health insurance, medical care, mortgage title insurance, social networks, Internet searches, or even consumer goods like toothpaste. Every day, the average American transfers a little of their pay check to monopolists and oligopolists. The solution is vigorous anti-trust enforcement to return America to a period where competition created higher economic growth, more jobs, higher wages and a level playing field for all. The Myth of Capitalism is the story of industrial concentration, but it matters to everyone, because the stakes could not be higher. It tackles the big questions of: why is the US becoming a more unequal society, why is economic growth anemic despite trillions of dollars of federal debt and money printing, why the number of start-ups has declined, and why are workers losing out.

Review and Analysis of the Myth of the Rational Voter

Review and Analysis of the Myth of the Rational Voter PDF Author: Summary Shorts
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781976503535
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description
Most people would agree that democracy is broken yet we all know that it is the best governmental system we have. Despite it being the best system, we are facing an unprecedented crisis. Unemployment is high, most economies are stagnating and yet everything the governments are trying to do to save the economy is failing to deliver. The reason they are failing is due to the process of democracy itself. In Bryan Caplan's Book, the Myth of the Rational Voter, Bryan goes into some depth about the reasons democracies are suffering and what can be done to fix them. In this Summary, we will analyze, discuss and summarize the key points in "The Myth of the Rational Voter" By Bryan Caplan. Enjoy!

The Myth of the Rational Voter

The Myth of the Rational Voter PDF Author: Bryan Caplan
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400828821
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
The greatest obstacle to sound economic policy is not entrenched special interests or rampant lobbying, but the popular misconceptions, irrational beliefs, and personal biases held by ordinary voters. This is economist Bryan Caplan's sobering assessment in this provocative and eye-opening book. Caplan argues that voters continually elect politicians who either share their biases or else pretend to, resulting in bad policies winning again and again by popular demand. Boldly calling into question our most basic assumptions about American politics, Caplan contends that democracy fails precisely because it does what voters want. Through an analysis of Americans' voting behavior and opinions on a range of economic issues, he makes the convincing case that noneconomists suffer from four prevailing biases: they underestimate the wisdom of the market mechanism, distrust foreigners, undervalue the benefits of conserving labor, and pessimistically believe the economy is going from bad to worse. Caplan lays out several bold ways to make democratic government work better--for example, urging economic educators to focus on correcting popular misconceptions and recommending that democracies do less and let markets take up the slack. The Myth of the Rational Voter takes an unflinching look at how people who vote under the influence of false beliefs ultimately end up with government that delivers lousy results. With the upcoming presidential election season drawing nearer, this thought-provoking book is sure to spark a long-overdue reappraisal of our elective system.