Democracy for Realists (eBook)

Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government

Christopher H. Achen, Larry M. Bartels (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2017
408 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-8874-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Why our belief in government by the people is unrealistic-and what we can do about itDemocracy 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.

Autor

Christopher H. Achen is the Roger Williams Straus Professor of Social Sciences and professor of politics at Princeton University. His books include The European Union Decides. Larry M. Bartels holds the May Werthan Shayne Chair of Public Policy and Social Science at Vanderbilt University. His books include Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age (Princeton).

Produkt-Details

• Reihe/Serie: Princeton Studies in Political Behavior
• Reihe/Serie: Princeton Studies in Political Behavior
• Nachwort: Christopher H. Achen, Larry M. Bartels
• Zusatzinfo: 26 b/w illus., 18 tables
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
• Schlagworte: Accountability • activism • Advocacy group • African Americans • americans • ballot • bureaucrat • Bureau of Economic Analysis • Calculation • candidate • Citizens (Spanish political party) • communism • Criticism • defection • Deliberation • demagogue • Democracy • democratic ideals • Dictatorship • Direct Democracy • Drought • economic data • Economic Growth • Economics • economy • Election • Elections • Electoral College (United States) • Elite • Employment • estimation • foreign policy • General Election • Good government • Government • Identity (social science) • Ideology • income • incumbent • inference • Institution • issue voting • Jimmy Carter • John Dewey • left-wing politics • Liberalism • Major party • Nomination • Opinion Poll • Opposition Party • Oxford University Press • Party Identification • Party leader • Party System • Percentage point • Philip Converse • Policy • Political Campaign • Political culture • Political History • Political Party • Political Philosophy • Political Psychology • Political Science • Politician • Politics • politics of the united states • popular sovereignty • Populism • Primary Election • Public Opinion • Public Policy • Public sphere • Rational Choice Theory • Rationality • Recession • Referendum • Representative Democracy • Republican Party (United States) • Ronald Reagan • Self-Interest • Seminar • Social Credit • Solid South • standard error • Tax • Term limit • The American Voter • theory • two-party system • Uncertainty • Unemployment • United States presidential election • Voting • Voting Behavior • Walter Lippmann • welfare • white southerners • Woodrow Wilson • World War II • Writing
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-8874-3 / 1400888743
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-8874-0 / 9781400888740