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Bryan Caplan
Bryan Caplan is an economics professor at George Mason University and a general critic of higher education. He is known for his work, "The Case Against Education," which explores the economic and societal impacts of schooling.
The myth of the rational voter
The myth of the rational voter
- Pages
- 276
- Published
- 2007
- Language
- English
Synopsis
"Caplan argues that voters continually elect politicians who either share their biases or else pretend to, resulting in bad policies winning again and again by popular demand. Calling into question our most basic assumptions about American politics, Caplan contends that democracy fails precisely because it does what voters want. Through an analysis of American's voting behavior and opinions on a range of economic issues, he makes the case that noneconomists suffer from four prevailing biases: they underestimate the wisdom of the market mechanism, distrust foreigners, undervalue the benefits of conserving labor, and pessimistically believe the economy is going from bad to worse. Caplan lays out several ways to make democratic government work better."--Provided by publisher.