Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (Princeton Studies in Political Behavior)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.78 (655 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B0713Q2B6T |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 498 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-04-04 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
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. They also show that voters adjust their policy views and even their perceptions of basic matters of fact to match those loyalties. They demonstrate that voters—even tho
Achen is the Roger Williams Straus Professor of Social Sciences and professor of politics at Princeton University. His books include The European Union Decides. . His books include Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age (Princeton). Larry M. Christopher
Rigorous statistical debunking of political scientists' folklore This is an excellent book, but a couple of caveats are probably warranted. The main one is that despite its down-to-earth title, this isn’t really a book for general readers. The authors (hereafter A&B) mention in their preface that they hope the book will be useful for “colleagues and students” — present and future professional political scientists — and that is the. "Critiquing the "Folk Theory of Democracy"" according to Doctor Moss. Bartels and Achen challenge what they call the “folk theory of democracy.” The “folk theory” seems to have its roots in the idea of the “rational man” — an Enlightenment idea, certainly, but one that seems to have made its way into popular politics. The idea is that democracy works (when it does) via choices of representatives or directly of policies as i. Excellent message on the limits of what democracy can deliver The publication of this book is extremely well timed given the events of 2016 and rise of populism in various countries most notably the US. Democracy for realists makes the case against the commonsense mechanisms always talked about for the benefits of democracy. In particular the authors discuss the two primary arguments in favor of democracy as a mechanism of government ie to allow people to v
In their brilliant new Democracy for Realists, the political scientists Christopher H. Democracy for Realists will set minds thinking and trigger an array of debate; which, at the end of the day, is what democracy is all about."--David Marx Book Reviews"Democracy for Realists is essential reading for 2016, an empirically and theoretically rigorous political science treatise that debunks traditional defenses of democracy as a way to reflect the ‘will of the people' or allow well-informed and rational voters to guide the country. Winner of the 2017 David O. The truth, as political scientists Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels describe in Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government, is that voters are tribalistic."--Jamelle Bouie, Slate"A comprehensive analysis that lays the foundation for a discussion of necessary reforms and how they can be achieved."--Kirkus (starr