For readers who may be interested, the video of my recent Cato Institute Book Forum on my recently published Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter. is linked below. The event includes commentary by George Washington University political scientist John Sides (coauthor of an important new book on the 2012 presidential election), and […]
Author Archive | Ilya Somin
In Bond Oral Argument, the Federal Government Once Again Refuses to Admit there are any Structural Limits to Federal Power
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Bond v. United States, an important case on the issue of whether the Constitution allows the federal government to use international treaties to give Congress authority over issues that otherwise would be beyond the scope of federal power. Bond – which has already been to […]
Richard Posner on the Rise and Fall of Judicial Deference
At the JOTWELL site, Emory law professor Charles Shanor reviews an important article by Judge Richard Posner on the rise and fall of “Thayerian” judicial deference to legislatures. Posner traces the history of James Bradley Thayer’s famous argument (first developed in the 1890s) that judges should only strike down a statute if its unconstitutionality is […]
The Rationality of Political Ignorance Revisited
By Ilya Somin on November 5, 2013 11:10 am in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance
Bruce Ramsey of the Liberty website isn’t happy with either participant in my recent debate with Jeffrey Friedman over the the rationality of political ignorance at Cato Unbound. He claims that we misrepresent each other’s positions, and that in any case the question we are debating doesn’t matter much. Here is his critique of my […]
A Poor Rationale for Banning Organ Markets
At National Review, Wesley Smith has a post criticizing a Canadian proposal to pay kidney donors. He supports banning such payments because they would “exploit” the poor: The drive to turn living human bodies of the poor and destitute into natural resources for the well off continues…. If organs can be purchased like a steak […]
Justice Kennedy’s Federalism Rationale for Refusing to Perform Marriage Ceremonies
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy recently explained that he does not perform marriages because of concerns about the implications for federalism [HT: Josh Blackman]: Justice Kennedy has written all three of the high court’s landmark opinions respecting gay rights, from Romer v. Evans in 1996– which struck down a Colorado voter initiative that abolished antidiscrimination […]
Concluding Thoughts on the Cato Unbound Symposium on Democracy and Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on October 31, 2013 2:10 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance, Public Choice, Public Opinion
The Cato Unbound symposium on my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter is wrapping up up today. I am grateful to political theorist Jeffrey Friedman, Yale Law School Professor Heather Gerken, and Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics for their thoughtful critiques of the book, and to Jason Kuznicki of Cato Unbound for […]
Two Upcoming Talks about Democracy and Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on October 31, 2013 11:05 am in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance
Next week, I will be giving two talks on my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter. The first will be at Duke Law School, Rm. 3037, on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 12:15-1:30 (with commentary by Duke Professor Jonathan Anomaly). The second is a book forum at the Cato Institute, on Wednesday, Nov. […]
“Democracy” and “Republic” Are Not Mutually Exclusive Terms
By Ilya Somin on October 28, 2013 5:56 pm in Democracy, Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance
If you write about democratic theory, as I do, you will periodically get complaints that it is inaccurate to refer to the United States as a “democracy” because it is actually a “republic.” For example, several Facebook commenters and others have suggested that I should have titled my book Democracy and Political Ignorance (which focuses […]
Debating the Impact of Political Ignorance
At Cato Unbound, Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics, and I have continued our debate over the impact of political ignorance. Sean contends that it is a less serious problem than I sugggest in my book and my lead essay at Cato Unbound. Here are Sean’s latest post on the issue, and my rejoinder. One point from […]
More on Voting With Your Feet and the Poor
By Ilya Somin on October 28, 2013 12:57 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance, Voting With Your Feet
At America Magazine, Robert D. Sullivan has responded to my post in which I criticized his earlier post claiming that “voting with your feet” only benefits the affluent. Sullivan’s most recent post actually outlines many areas of agreement between us. He now recognizes that foot voting can in fact benefit the poor, and that the […]
Why Both Political Ignorance and Political Irrationality Matter
In a recent post, co-blogger David Bernstein asks whether political ignorance (voters’ lack of knowledge) matters, or only political irrationality (voters’ biased evaluation of the information they do know). David suggests that ignorance might not matter much if ignorant voters, like many consumers, make good use of information shortcuts, such as relying on the judgment […]
Debating the Rationality of Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on October 25, 2013 4:36 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance, Public Opinion
At Cato Unbound, political theorist Jeffrey Friedman and I are continuing to debate whether widespread political ignorance is primarily the result of rational behavior (my view) or mostly inadvertent (his view). Friedman argues that most voters simply don’t realize that there is lots of political information out there that might help them make better decisions […]
Some Upcoming Talks on Democracy and Political Ignorance
For those who may be interested, I am doing three talks about my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter next week that are open to the public: October 29, 1-2:15 PM, Yale Law School, Rm. 128: Yale Law School Federalist Society (with commentary by Yale Law School Professor Heather Gerken). October […]
Voting With Your Feet Works for the Poor, Too
By Ilya Somin on October 25, 2013 12:15 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance, Voting With Your Feet
At the America Magazine website, Robert David Sullivan responds to my book and Cato Unbound essay arguing that foot voting leads to better-informed decisions than ballot box voting by claiming that foot voting is only likely to benefit the wealthy: I haven’t seen the book, but Somin’s essay reads like a whispered call for solidarity […]