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 […]
Archive | Democracy and Political Ignorance
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 […]
My Response to Jeffrey Friedman’s Critique of Democracy and Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on October 22, 2013 7:02 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance, Polls, Public Choice, Public Opinion
Cato Unbound has now posted my response to political theorist Jeffrey Friedman’s insightful criticism of my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter. Here is an excerpt: In his critique of my book, Jeffrey Friedman continues his longstanding efforts to show that most political ignorance is inadvertent rather than rational. In his […]
My Response to Sean Trende’s Commentary on Democracy and Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on October 22, 2013 6:55 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance, Polls, Public Opinion, Uncategorized
Cato Unbound has posted my response to RealClearPolitics Senior Elections Analyst Sean Trende’s thoughtful commentary on my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter. Here is an excerpt: Sean offers three important criticisms of the argument advanced in Democracy and Political Ignorance: that voters know enough to make good decisions on really […]
My Response to Heather Gerken’s Comment on Democracy and Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on October 21, 2013 6:03 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Federalism, Political Ignorance, Voting With Your Feet
Cato Unbound has posted my response to Yale Law School Professor Heather Gerken’s thoughtful critique of my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter. Over the next day or two, they will also post my response to the insightful commentaries by Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics and political theorist Jeffrey Friedman. The conversation […]
The Superiority of Democracy Over Dictatorship is No Reason to Ignore the Problem of Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on October 19, 2013 11:20 am in Democracy, Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance
In this recent American Scene post, Pascal-Emanuel Gobry argues that I and other libertarians who focus on the problem of voter ignorance as a major flaw of modern democracy are wrong to do so, because democracy is still superior to other forms of government: Libertarians who live in America look around them and see cops […]
Upcoming Georgetown University Law Center Event on Democracy and Political Ignorance
By Ilya Somin on October 17, 2013 11:05 am in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance
On Tuesday, October 22, noon-1:30 PM, I will be speaking about my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter at the Georgetown University Law Center. There will be commentary by economist Bryan Caplan, author of The Myth of the Rational Voter, and Georgetown law professor Louis Michael Seidman. There will also be […]
Sean Trende on Democracy and Political Ignorance
Cato Unbound has posted a thoughtful critique of my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter by Sean Trende, Senior Elections Analyst at RealClearPolitics. Sean argues that, despite considerable ignorance, voters know enough to make good decisions on major issues, and to select the better of the two major party candidates. He […]
Heather Gerken on Democracy and Political Ignorance
Cato Unbound has posted Yale Law School professor Heather Gerken’s insightful response to my lead essay on “Democracy and Political Ignorance.” The Cato Unbound symposium focuses on the arguments presented in my new book, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter. In her critique, Gerken argues that political ignorance is significantly by mitigated […]
My Cato Unbound Lead Essay on “Democracy and Political Ignorance”
By Ilya Somin on October 11, 2013 4:40 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance, Public Opinion
My essay, “Democracy and Political Ignorance,” – which summarizes some key themes of my new book on the same subject, is the lead essay in this month’s Cato Unbound forum. Here is the first paragraph: Democracy is supposed to be rule of the people, by the people, and for the people. But in order to […]
Bryan Caplan’s Voter Achievement Test
By Ilya Somin on October 10, 2013 1:38 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Education, Political Ignorance
Widespread political ignorance has persisted despite major increases in education and IQ, and in the availability of information through the media. But economist Bryan Caplan – a leading academic expert on political knowledge suggests a possible solution – the Voter Achievement Test: After years of reflecting on voter cognition,… I’ve come up with a remedy […]