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Are Irrational Voters A Threat To Democracy?
Not Another Politics Podcast
English - November 03, 2021 13:16 - 47 minutes - 43.5 MBGovernment News Politics chicago government academic americanpolitics anthonyfowler notanotherpoliticspodcast political politicalpodcast politicalprofessors politicalscience Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Previous Episode: Where Are All The Moderate Politicians?
Next Episode: Are Most Voters Moderates?
There’s a long tradition in political science of using voter rationality to test the health of our democracy. But could this myopia be misguided? Are there any situations where irrational and uninformed voters could actually generate a healthier democracy?
That’s exactly what University of Chicago political scientist Ethan BdM examines in his paper “Is Voter Competence Good for Voters?: Information, Rationality, and Democratic Performance”. Using formal models, he lays out the possibility that information and rationality do not always lead to a better democracy and strikes directly at the heart of this foundational literature.
Paper link: http://home.uchicago.edu/bdm/PDF/voter_competence.pdf