Democracy for realists
Subtitle: why elections do not produce responsive government
By: Christopher H. Achen, Larry M. Bartels
Contributors: Bartels, Larry M., 1956- author
Series: Princeton studies in political behavior; Princeton studies in political behavior
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 390
ISBN-13: 9780691169446
Subjects: Politics and government; Representative government and representation; Democracy; Voting; Elections; Political participation
Description: Achen and Bartels argue that democratic theory needs to be founded on identity groups and political parties, not on the preferences of individual voters. 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. --Publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-369) and index.
Table of contents: title: 1. Democratic Ideals and Realities; title: 2. The Elusive Mandate: Elections and the Mirage of Popular Control; title: 3. Tumbling Down into a Democratical Republick: "Pure Democracy" and the Pitfalls of Popular Control; title: 4. A Rational God of Vengeance and of Reward? The Logic of Retrospective Accountability; title: 5. Blind Retrospection: Electoral Responses to Droughts, Floods, and Shark Attacks; title: 6. Musical Chairs: Economic Voting and the Specious Present; title: 7. A Chicken in Every Pot: Ideology and Retrospection in the Great Depression; title: 8. The Very Basis of Reasons: Groups, Social Identities, and Political Psychology; title: 9. Partisan Hearts and Spleens: Social Identities and Political Change; title: 10. It Feels Like We're Thinking: The Rationalizing Voter; title: 11. Groups and Power: Toward a Realist Theory of Democracy; title: Appendix: Retrospective Voting as Selection and Sanctioning.