Cover image for Democracy for realists : why elections do not produce responsive government
Democracy for realists : why elections do not produce responsive government
Title:
Democracy for realists : why elections do not produce responsive government
ISBN:
9780691169446
Physical Description:
xvi, 390 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.
Contents:
1. Democratic Ideals and Realities -- 2. The Elusive Mandate: Elections and the Mirage of Popular Control -- 3. Tumbling Down into a Democratical Republick: "Pure Democracy" and the Pitfalls of Popular Control -- 4. A Rational God of Vengeance and of Reward? The Logic of Retrospective Accountability -- 5. Blind Retrospection: Electoral Responses to Droughts, Floods, and Shark Attacks -- 6. Musical Chairs: Economic Voting and the Specious Present -- 7. A Chicken in Every Pot: Ideology and Retrospection in the Great Depression -- 8. The Very Basis of Reasons: Groups, Social Identities, and Political Psychology -- 9. Partisan Hearts and Spleens: Social Identities and Political Change -- 10. It Feels Like We're Thinking: The Rationalizing Voter -- 11. Groups and Power: Toward a Realist Theory of Democracy -- Appendix: Retrospective Voting as Selection and Sanctioning.
Summary:
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.
Holds: