Myth of the Rational Voter

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix INTRODUCTION: The Paradox of Democracy 1 CHAPTER 1: Beyond the Miracle of Aggregation 5 CHAPTER 2: Systematically Biased Beliefs about Economics 23 CHAPTER 3: Evidence from the Survey of Americans and Economists on the Economy 50 CHAPTER 4: Classical Public Choice and the Failure of Rational Ignorance 94 CHAPTER 5: Rational Irrationality 114 CHAPTER 6: From Irrationality to Policy 142 CHAPTER 7: Irrationality and the Supply Side of Politics 166 CHAPTER 8: "Market Fundamentalism" versus the Religion of Democracy 182 CONCLUSION: In Praise of the Study of Folly 205 NOTES 211 REFERENCES 237 INDEX 267

Bryan Caplan is associate professor of economics at George Mason University. He is the coeditor of the Weblog "EconLog".

"The best political book this year."--Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times "Caplan thinks that democracy as it is now practiced cannot be salvaged, and his position is based on a simple observation: 'Democracy is a commons, not a market.?"--Louis Menand, The New Yorker "One of the two or three best books on public choice in the last twenty years."--Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution "Like a few recent best sellers--Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, The Wisdom of Crowds--The Myth of the Rational Voter unwraps economic theories and applies them to everyday life. Mr. Caplan's thesis, though, lacks any semblance of a compliment: The ?unwisdom of crowds? is closer to his point. He believes that the American public is biased against sensible, empirically proved economic policies about which nearly all economists agree. Voters, he says, are not just ignorant in the sense of having insufficient information. They actually hold wrong-headed and damaging beliefs about how the economy works."--Daniel Casse, The Wall Street Journal "[P]rovocative."--Elsa Dixler, New York Times Book Review "The Myth of the Rational Voter usefully extends the discussion [about democracy] by linking it with 'public choice' theory... Public choice theory faces a dilemma. A rational and self-interested person has no incentive to study political issues, as the chances of his or her determining the outcome are negligible. This has become known as 'rational ignorance'. Caplan maintains that the reality is much worse. He shows that voters are not just ignorant but systematically biased in favor of mistaken views."--Samuel Brittan, Financial Times "Caplan is right to detect a stubborn irrationality in ordinary voters and he correctly points out to his rational choice colleagues that their models are hopelessly unrealistic."--Martin Leet, Australian Review of Public Affairs "Caplan argues convincingly that irrational behaviour is pervasive among many of us today... Caplan's point, however, is that most voters