Whenever we have an election, pundits and politicians wax eloquent about the supposed need to increase voter turnout. Much less attention is paid to the question of whether the people going to the polls actually understand the issues they’re voting on. In conjunction with the upcoming Canadian election, political philosopher Jason Brennan, author of the […]
Archive | Political Ignorance
Democracy, Natural Disasters, and Political Ignorance
The massive destruction and tragic loss of life in the recent earthquake in Japan will surely rekindle debates over how well democratic governments handle natural disaster. The good news is that democracies handle natural disasters much better than nondemocratic nations. On the other hand, the quality of democratic disaster policy is still negatively affected by […]
Political Ignorance and Obamacare Repeal
A recent Kaiser poll finds that only 52% of Americans realize that the Obama health care plan has not been repealed, with 22% believing that it has been, and 26% saying they don’t know. The 52% figure probably slightly overestimates the percentage of people who really know the right answer to this question, since some […]
Northwestern University School of Law Panel on Democracy and Technology
This Friday, I will be taking part in a panel at the Northwestern University School of Law on the implications of accelerating technological development for democracy. The panel will be held from 3:30 to 5 PM in the Atrium. It will focus on Northwestern law professor John McGinnis’ forthcoming book Accelerating Democracy, in which John […]
Robert Heinlein’s Experience with Political Ignorance
Robert Heinlein is best known for being one of the founding fathers of modern science fiction and for his libertarian political views. William Patterson’s fascinating new biography of Heinlein shows that an encounter with political ignorance played a key role in Heinlein’s life, setting him on the path to becoming a writer rather than a […]
The Gender Gap in Interest in Politics
Heather Mac Donald has an interesting column on the widely discussed data showing that some 87% of all Wikipedia contributors are male. She argues persuasively that it’s difficult to attribute the gap to discrimination, since most Wikipedia writers are anonymous, thereby making it virtually impossible for Wikipedia to discriminate against women even if they wanted […]
Two Upcoming Talks at the Students for Liberty International Conference
For those readers who may be interested, I will be giving two talks this Saturday at the Students for Liberty International Conference. I. “Democracy and Political Ignorance: What the Voters Don’t Know and Why it Hurts Them” – 2:15-3:15 PM II. “Harry Potter and the Rings of Power: Liberty in Fantasy and Science Fiction” – […]
Reflections on the Potential Revolution in Egypt
By Ilya Somin on January 29, 2011 11:18 pm in Democracy, Political Ignorance, Public Choice, Public Opinion
I don’t have any brilliant suggestions for how President Obama should handle the situation in Egypt. But history and economic theory do give us some insight on why the revolt against the government started so suddenly and unexpectedly. They also highlight the danger that any regime that replaces incumbent dictator Hosni Mubarak might turn out […]
Foot Voting, Political Ignorance, and Constitutional Design
By Ilya Somin on January 20, 2011 10:30 am in Constitutional Theory, Federalism, Political Ignorance
My new article “Foot Voting, Political Ignorance, and Constitutional Design,” was recently published as part of a symposium on “What Should Constitutions Do?” in Social Philosophy and Policy, a journal published by Cambridge University Press. The article is available here. Here is the abstract: The strengths and weaknesses of federalism have been debated for centuries. […]
Political Ignorance and Federal Spending
Although federal spending was a major political issue in the 2010 campaign and for many months before it, this recently released CBS poll [HT: Dan Mitchell] reveals widespread public ignorance about the distribution of spending between various programs. The detailed data reveal that only 23% know that Medicare and Medicaid take up between 20 and […]
Why Scholars’ Motives Should be Irrelevant to Our Evaluation of their Scholarship
At an American Association of Law Schools panel that I took part in at this year’s annual conference, we briefly discussed the question of whether scholars’ motives for writing an article should be relevant to our evaluation of its quality. Often, people make claims such as the following: “Professor X only wrote that article to […]
New Survey Data on Public Attitudes Towards Kelo and Economic Development Takings
By Ilya Somin on November 23, 2010 5:53 pm in Eminent Domain, Kelo, Political Ignorance, Polls, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Kelo v. City of New London, which ruled that government has the power to forcibly transfer property from one private owner to another in order to promote “economic development,” was one of the most unpopular decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. Polls conducted soon after the decision was issued in 2005 found that […]
Harlan Institute Education Initiative
Rising star legal blogger Josh Blackman also doubles as president of the Harlan Institute (for which I am an unpaid adviser), in addition to writing more law journal articles than a good many tenured professors. Few other recent law school graduates have accomplished so much in so little time. Josh and his Institute have an […]
Political Ignorance and the 2010 Election
Even before the election ended, some liberals argued that public ignorance explains the big Republican victories that just occurred. There is, I think, some truth to that contention. For example, a recent Bloomberg poll shows that 52% of voters thought that “middle class” federal income taxes have gone up in the last two years, even […]
Deliberative Democracy and Political Ignorance
Deliberative democracy is a very popular idea among political theorists and legal scholars. Advocates include such luminaries as Jurgen Habermas, and Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson. In this new article, produced for a symposium on deliberative democracy at Critical Review, I argue that deliberative democracy runs afoul of the problem of widespread political ignorance. Here’s […]