Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter

Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter
ISBN-10
0804786615
ISBN-13
9780804786614
Category
Law
Language
English
Published
2013-10-02
Publisher
Stanford Law Books
Author
Ilya Somin

Description

One of the biggest problems with modern democracy is that most of the public is usually ignorant of politics and government. Often, many people understand that their votes are unlikely to change the outcome of an election and don't see the point in learning much about politics. This may be rational, but it creates a nation of people with little political knowledge and little ability to objectively evaluate what they do know. In Democracy and Political Ignorance, Ilya Somin mines the depths of ignorance in America and reveals the extent to which it is a major problem for democracy. Somin weighs various options for solving this problem, arguing that political ignorance is best mitigated and its effects lessened by decentralizing and limiting government. Somin provocatively argues that people make better decisions when they choose what to purchase in the market or which state or local government to live under, than when they vote at the ballot box, because they have stronger incentives to acquire relevant information and to use it wisely.

Other editions

Similar books

  • Property Law: Rules, Policies, and Practices
    By Joseph William Singer, Bethany R. Berger, Nestor M. Davidson

    See also Country Community Timberlake Village v. HMW Special Utility District of Harris, 438 S.W.3d 661 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014) (holding that a neighboring ...

  • Entertainment Law and Business
    By William D. Henslee, Elizabeth Henslee

    After Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson's pierced nipple on national television for 9/16ths of a second, the FCC received over 540,000 complaints.

  • The Common Law in Colonial America: Volume III: The Chesapeake and New England, 1660-1750
    By William E. Nelson

    Volume III: The Chesapeake and New England, 1660-1750 William E. Nelson ... Decision of Law, Surry County Ct. 1673/74, in Eliza Timberlake Davis ed., ...

  • The Indiana State Constitution
    By William P. McLauchlan

    E. Edwards v. California, 314 U.S. 160 (1941), 66 Edwards v. Housing Authority of City of ... Timberlake, 148 Ind. 38,46 N.E.339 (1897), 69,70 Graves v.

  • Child Support Guidelines: Interpretation and Application
    By Laura W. Morgan

    Fitzgerald, 4.08[B][2], 5.05[D] Fitzgerald v. ... Mastrapa-Font, 7.03[A][3] Fontaine, In re, 5.05[D] Fontenette v. ... Frost, 5.05[A] Formato v.

  • Maritime Fraud and Piracy
    By Paul Todd

    The sole remedy is avoidance, however; damages cannot be claimed under s. ... 17, it places a great deal of power in the hands of insurance companies to ...

  • Principles of the Carriage of Goods by Sea
    By Paul Todd

    Normally, a mate«s receipt would later be given up for a bill of lading, ... they necessarily prejudice the rights of those who deal in the goods ...

  • Maryland Employment Law
    By Stanley Mazaroff, Todd Horn

    27 257 U.S. 184, 42 S. Ct. 72, 66 L. Ed. 189 (1921). ... 38 Argensinger, “Right to Strike”: Labor Organization and the New Deal in Baltimore, 78 MD . HIST .

  • Contract Law in New Zealand
    By Stephen Todd, Jeremy Finn

    704 Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017, s. 80. 705 Leith v. Gould [1986] 1 NZLR 760. It is not clear how a New Zealand court would deal with a case such ...

  • Tort Law in New Zealand
    By Stephen Todd

    ... to meet the reasonable expectations of claimants about how the corporation should deal with them, by, inter alia, ... 7 Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, s.