The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies (New Edition)Princeton University Press, 2008 M08 24 - 276 pages 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. |
Contents
The Paradox of Democracy | 1 |
CHAPTER 1 Beyond the Miracle of Aggregation | 5 |
CHAPTER 2 Systematically Biased Beliefs about Economics | 23 |
CHAPTER 3 Evidence from the Survey of Americans and Economists on the Economy | 50 |
CHAPTER 4 Classical Public Choice and the Failure of Rational Ignorance | 94 |
CHAPTER 5 Rational Irrationality | 114 |
CHAPTER 6 From Irrationality to Policy | 142 |
Other editions - View all
The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies Bryan Caplan Limited preview - 2011 |
The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies (New ... Bryan Caplan Limited preview - 2008 |
The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies Bryan Douglas Caplan No preview available - 2007 |