Christopher H. Achen & Larry M. Bartels. Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016, 408 pages.

Authors : Aysuda KÖLEMEN

Pages : 139-141

View : 32 | Download : 17

Publication Date : 2016-12-15

Article Type : Other Papers

Abstract :Democracy for Realists is an ambitious project that sets its sights at nothing less than turning our conception of democracy and the enlightened, wise citizens — an ideal that has ruled both the popular and academic imagination for over two centuries — upside down. Christopher H. Achen and Larry M. Bartels invite the readers to “think about democracy in a fundamentally different way” and make the case that there is a large, consistent and irreconcilable gap between the idealized picture of enlightened voter behavior in what the authors term the “folk theory of democracy” and voter behavior in actual politics.
Keywords : democracy, elections