eBook - ePub

The Myth of the Rational Voter

Name: The Myth of the Rational Voter
Author: Bryan Caplan

Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies - New Edition

Bryan Caplan,

296 pages
English
ePUB (mobile friendly)
Available on iOS & Android

eBook - ePub

The Myth of the Rational Voter

Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies - New Edition

Bryan Caplan,

About this book

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.

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Yes, you can access The Myth of the Rational Voter by Bryan Caplan in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Political Campaigns & Elections. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.