Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government
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About this ebook
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. 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.
Christopher H. Achen
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Reviews for Democracy for Realists
4 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The first four chapters of the book rate five stars, but for a general reader, the book overall only scores a three. First, let's look at those first four chapters. They examine -- and contradict -- the assumption that American elections reveal voter preferences on the issues, leading to a government that is in some sense representative of the wishes of the electorate. Rather, the authors show, voters pretty much react to economic conditions just prior to the election, and, to a lesser degree, whether or not a party has been in power for two or more terms. The statistical evidence is compelling. The outcome is disheartening, but won't really surprise those who have spent a lot of time thinking about American politics. The rest of the book isn't nearly as interesting, essentially rehashing the earlier evidence in different combinations. For a lay reader, this book is a tough read, and a boring one. That's too bad, given the importance of its central conclusion.