Democracy for Realists

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400888743
Total Pages : 423 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Democracy for Realists by : Christopher H. Achen

Download or read book Democracy for Realists written by Christopher H. Achen and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why our belief in government by the people is unrealistic—and what we can do about it 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. Now with new analysis of the 2016 elections, 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.

Policy, Office, Or Votes?

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521637237
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (372 download)

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Book Synopsis Policy, Office, Or Votes? by : Wolfgang C. Müller

Download or read book Policy, Office, Or Votes? written by Wolfgang C. Müller and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-08-28 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the behaviour of political parties in situations where they experience conflict between two or more important objectives.

Follow the Leader?

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226472159
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis Follow the Leader? by : Gabriel S. Lenz

Download or read book Follow the Leader? written by Gabriel S. Lenz and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-01-29 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a democracy, we generally assume that voters know the policies they prefer and elect like-minded officials who are responsible for carrying them out. We also assume that voters consider candidates' competence, honesty, and other performance-related traits. But does this actually happen? Do voters consider candidates’ policy positions when deciding for whom to vote? And how do politicians’ performances in office factor into the voting decision? In Follow the Leader?, Gabriel S. Lenz sheds light on these central questions of democratic thought. Lenz looks at citizens’ views of candidates both before and after periods of political upheaval, including campaigns, wars, natural disasters, and episodes of economic boom and bust. Noting important shifts in voters’ knowledge and preferences as a result of these events, he finds that, while citizens do assess politicians based on their performance, their policy positions actually matter much less. Even when a policy issue becomes highly prominent, voters rarely shift their votes to the politician whose position best agrees with their own. In fact, Lenz shows, the reverse often takes place: citizens first pick a politician and then adopt that politician’s policy views. In other words, they follow the leader. Based on data drawn from multiple countries, Follow the Leader? is the most definitive treatment to date of when and why policy and performance matter at the voting booth, and it will break new ground in the debates about democracy.

Collective Preferences in Democratic Politics

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521527873
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (278 download)

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Book Synopsis Collective Preferences in Democratic Politics by : Scott L. Althaus

Download or read book Collective Preferences in Democratic Politics written by Scott L. Althaus and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-09-08 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since so few people appear knowledgeable about public affairs, one might question whether collective policy preferences revealed in opinion surveys accurately convey the distribution of voices and interests in a society. This study, the first comprehensive treatment of the relationship between knowledge, representation, and political equality in opinion surveys, suggests some surprising answers. Knowledge does matter, and the way it is distributed in society can cause collective preferences to reflect disproportionately the opinions of some groups more than others. Sometimes collective preferences seem to represent something like the will of the people, but frequently they do not. Sometimes they rigidly enforce political equality in the expression of political viewpoints, but often they do not. The primary culprit is not any inherent shortcoming in the methods of survey research. Rather, it is the limited degree of knowledge held by ordinary citizens about public affairs. Accounting for these factors can help survey researchers, journalists, politicians, and concerned citizens better appreciate the pitfalls and possibilities for using opinion polls to represent the people s voice.

Political Cycles and the Macroeconomy

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262510943
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis Political Cycles and the Macroeconomy by : Alberto Alesina

Download or read book Political Cycles and the Macroeconomy written by Alberto Alesina and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how electoral laws, the timing of election, the ideological orientation of governments, and the nature of competition between political parties influence unemployment, economic growth, inflation, and monetary and fiscal policy. The book presents both a thorough overview of the theoretical literature and a vast amount of empirical evidence.

Electoral Democracy

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Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 9780472068203
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (682 download)

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Book Synopsis Electoral Democracy by : Michael MacKuen

Download or read book Electoral Democracy written by Michael MacKuen and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Top scholars in the field survey the study of elections and democracy

The Many Faces of Strategic Voting

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Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 0472131028
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (721 download)

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Book Synopsis The Many Faces of Strategic Voting by : John H Aldrich

Download or read book The Many Faces of Strategic Voting written by John H Aldrich and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2018-11-20 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Voters do not always choose their preferred candidate on election day. Often they cast their ballots to prevent a particular outcome, as when their own preferred candidate has no hope of winning and they want to prevent another, undesirable candidate’s victory; or, they vote to promote a single-party majority in parliamentary systems, when their own candidate is from a party that has no hope of winning. In their thought-provoking book The Many Faces of Strategic Voting, Laura B. Stephenson, John H. Aldrich, and André Blais first provide a conceptual framework for understanding why people vote strategically, and what the differences are between sincere and strategic voting behaviors. Expert contributors then explore the many facets of strategic voting through case studies in Great Britain, Spain, Canada, Japan, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and the European Union.

Elections as Instruments of Democracy

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300080162
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (81 download)

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Book Synopsis Elections as Instruments of Democracy by : G. Bingham Powell

Download or read book Elections as Instruments of Democracy written by G. Bingham Powell and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text explores elections as instruments of democracy. Focusing on elections in 20 democracies over the last 25 years, it examines the differences between two visions of democracy - the majoritarian vision and the proportional influence vision.

A Unified Theory of Party Competition

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781139444002
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis A Unified Theory of Party Competition by : James F. Adams

Download or read book A Unified Theory of Party Competition written by James F. Adams and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-03-21 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book integrates spatial and behavioral perspectives - in a word, those of the Rochester and Michigan schools - into a unified theory of voter choice and party strategy. The theory encompasses both policy and non-policy factors, effects of turnout, voter discounting of party promises, expectations of coalition governments, and party motivations based on policy as well as office. Optimal (Nash equilibrium) strategies are determined for alternative models for presidential elections in the US and France, and for parliamentary elections in Britain and Norway. These polities cover a wide range of electoral rules, number of major parties, and governmental structures. The analyses suggest that the more competitive parties generally take policy positions that come close to maximizing their electoral support, and that these vote-maximizing positions correlate strongly with the mean policy positions of their supporters.

The Ethics of Voting

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400842093
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ethics of Voting by : Jason Brennan

Download or read book The Ethics of Voting written by Jason Brennan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-29 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nothing is more integral to democracy than voting. Most people believe that every citizen has the civic duty or moral obligation to vote, that any sincere vote is morally acceptable, and that buying, selling, or trading votes is inherently wrong. In this provocative book, Jason Brennan challenges our fundamental assumptions about voting, revealing why it is not a duty for most citizens--in fact, he argues, many people owe it to the rest of us not to vote. Bad choices at the polls can result in unjust laws, needless wars, and calamitous economic policies. Brennan shows why voters have duties to make informed decisions in the voting booth, to base their decisions on sound evidence for what will create the best possible policies, and to promote the common good rather than their own self-interest. They must vote well--or not vote at all. Brennan explains why voting is not necessarily the best way for citizens to exercise their civic duty, and why some citizens need to stay away from the polls to protect the democratic process from their uninformed, irrational, or immoral votes. In a democracy, every citizen has the right to vote. This book reveals why sometimes it's best if they don't. In a new afterword, "How to Vote Well," Brennan provides a practical guidebook for making well-informed, well-reasoned choices at the polls.

Degrees of Democracy

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 0521868335
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (218 download)

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Book Synopsis Degrees of Democracy by : Stuart N. Soroka

Download or read book Degrees of Democracy written by Stuart N. Soroka and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book develops and tests a 'thermostatic' model of public opinion and policy and examines both responsiveness and representation across a range of policy domains in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, concluding that representative democratic government functions surprisingly well.

Securing the Vote

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Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 030947647X
Total Pages : 181 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis Securing the Vote by : National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Download or read book Securing the Vote written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2018-09-30 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 2016 presidential election, America's election infrastructure was targeted by actors sponsored by the Russian government. Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy examines the challenges arising out of the 2016 federal election, assesses current technology and standards for voting, and recommends steps that the federal government, state and local governments, election administrators, and vendors of voting technology should take to improve the security of election infrastructure. In doing so, the report provides a vision of voting that is more secure, accessible, reliable, and verifiable.

American Government 3e

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781738998470
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (984 download)

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Book Synopsis American Government 3e by : Glen Krutz

Download or read book American Government 3e written by Glen Krutz and published by . This book was released on 2023-05-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Black & white print. American Government 3e aligns with the topics and objectives of many government courses. Faculty involved in the project have endeavored to make government workings, issues, debates, and impacts meaningful and memorable to students while maintaining the conceptual coverage and rigor inherent in the subject. With this objective in mind, the content of this textbook has been developed and arranged to provide a logical progression from the fundamental principles of institutional design at the founding, to avenues of political participation, to thorough coverage of the political structures that constitute American government. The book builds upon what students have already learned and emphasizes connections between topics as well as between theory and applications. The goal of each section is to enable students not just to recognize concepts, but to work with them in ways that will be useful in later courses, future careers, and as engaged citizens. In order to help students understand the ways that government, society, and individuals interconnect, the revision includes more examples and details regarding the lived experiences of diverse groups and communities within the United States. The authors and reviewers sought to strike a balance between confronting the negative and harmful elements of American government, history, and current events, while demonstrating progress in overcoming them. In doing so, the approach seeks to provide instructors with ample opportunities to open discussions, extend and update concepts, and drive deeper engagement.

Advances in the Spatial Theory of Voting

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521352840
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (528 download)

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Book Synopsis Advances in the Spatial Theory of Voting by : James M. Enelow

Download or read book Advances in the Spatial Theory of Voting written by James M. Enelow and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1990-06-29 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together eight original essays designed to provide an overview of developments in spatial voting theory in the past ten years. The topics covered are: spatial competition with possible entry by new candidates; the "heresthetical" manipulation of vote outcomes; candidates with policy preferences; experimental testing of spatial models; probabilistic voting; voting on alternatives with predictive power; elections with more than two candidates under different election systems; and agenda-setting behavior in voting. Leading scholars in these areas summarize the major results of their own and other's work, providing self-contained discussions that will apprise readers of important recent advances.

Unequal Political Participation Worldwide

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 110702353X
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Unequal Political Participation Worldwide by : Aina Gallego

Download or read book Unequal Political Participation Worldwide written by Aina Gallego and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes the levels of unequal electoral participation in thirty-six countries worldwide, examines possible causes of this phenomenon, and discusses its consequences.

The American Voter

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226092542
Total Pages : 576 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis The American Voter by : Angus Campbell

Download or read book The American Voter written by Angus Campbell and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1980-09-15 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On voting behavior in the United States

Who Votes Now?

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400848628
Total Pages : 231 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Who Votes Now? by : Jan E. Leighley

Download or read book Who Votes Now? written by Jan E. Leighley and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-24 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who Votes Now? compares the demographic characteristics and political views of voters and nonvoters in American presidential elections since 1972 and examines how electoral reforms and the choices offered by candidates influence voter turnout. Drawing on a wealth of data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey and the American National Election Studies, Jan Leighley and Jonathan Nagler demonstrate that the rich have consistently voted more than the poor for the past four decades, and that voters are substantially more conservative in their economic views than nonvoters. They find that women are now more likely to vote than men, that the gap in voting rates between blacks and whites has largely disappeared, and that older Americans continue to vote more than younger Americans. Leighley and Nagler also show how electoral reforms such as Election Day voter registration and absentee voting have boosted voter turnout, and how turnout would also rise if parties offered more distinct choices. Providing the most systematic analysis available of modern voter turnout, Who Votes Now? reveals that persistent class bias in turnout has enduring political consequences, and that it really does matter who votes and who doesn't.