The 2016 election cycle has confounded a good deal of scholarship and punditry so far. But one book that’s coming out smelling like a rose is Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels’ new book Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government. This book’s novel argument is that we’ve been thinking about democracy all wrong.
We tend to have a view of voters evaluating the evidence put in front of them over the course of a campaign, deciding what is useful and what is irrelevant, and then making an informed decision on election day. This is a fantasy, as Achen and Bartels capably show. CONT.
Seth Masket, Pacific Standard