I’ve been reading Bryan Caplan’s book the Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies for about three months. The book was recommended by Harvard economist Greg Mankiw. It’s a fascinating book about the failures of democracy. There’s a ton of information about how uninformed citizens are continuously wrong about simple economic ideas like free trade, immigration, and countless other topics. Caplan does a good job of steering away from politics and emphasizing on economics. Liberals and Conservatives looking for red meat will be disappointed.
Caplan’s main argument is that pure democracies do not work; however, a pure market approach is impractical. The reason democracies do not work isn’t because people vote for their self interests (he debunks that idea), but because people are too uninformed to make the correct decision. A citizen may vote for a candidate because he/she is in favor of price controls. The voter thinks price controls are for the best of the country; however, it’s bad for everyone. Caplan’s answer for the democracy dilemma is not a popular one, especially in a country full of Democratic Fundamentalists (see: George Bush). He argues that encouraging higher voter turnout isn’t necessary (and is in fact detrimental), and that prospective voters should have to meet an educational requirement to be allowed vote.
I think this is a great idea; however, there’s no way it would win popular approval. The truth is that educated people are better voters that uneducated voters and pure democracies always fail. The Republic as it was initially drawn up by the Founding Fathers is much different today than what they intended. They never intended direct election of Senators and the President, but over the course of American history the constitution has moved closer to a pure democracy.
Overall this is a great book for people with a passion for political science and economics. I’m obviously part of that demographic. For non-economists there’s a lot of heavy reading and jargon, but Caplan manages to keep it moving with a lot of real world examples. The Myth of the Rational Voter is a great insight into the failures of democracy.
i’m shocked that you would acknowledge a pure market approach not being affective in all circumstances. are you advocating some sort of public policy to gently shape the market forces? this would be a departure from your usual grade school “invisible hand solves everything and government should just get out of the way” spiel…
perhaps somewhere between your straw man “well-meaning but misguided utopianist” and your faux-iconoclast libertarian (republican-in-disguise) you might find a more pragmatic position usually occupied by fiscal moderates of both sides, including dems like me.
p.s. is this book based on rational choice theory?
[...] I’m sure some may vote that way, but research suggests otherwise. I touched on this subject briefly a few years ago reviewing Bryan Caplan’s book The Myth of the Rational Voter. The reason [...]