An Economic Theory Of Democracy

Author : Anthony Downs
Publisher : New York : Harper
Page : 330 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1957
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : UOM:39015007226056

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An Economic Theory of Democracy by Anthony Downs Pdf

This book seeks to elucidate its subject-the governing of democratic state-by making intelligible the party politics of democracies. Downs treats this differently than do other students of politics. His explanations are systematically related to, and deducible from, precisely stated assumptions about the motivations that attend the decisions of voters and parties and the environment in which they act. He is consciously concerned with the economy in explanation, that is, with attempting to account for phenomena in terms of a very limited number of facts and postulates. He is concerned also with the central features of party politics in any democratic state, not with that in the United States or any other single country.

Author : Bernard Grofman
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
Page : 298 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0472083430

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Information, Participation, and Choice by Bernard Grofman Pdf

A review of the consequences for political science of Anthony Downs's seminal work.

Author : Daron Acemoglu,James A. Robinson
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 444 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0521855268

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Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy by Daron Acemoglu,James A. Robinson Pdf

This book develops a framework for analyzing the creation and consolidation of democracy. Different social groups prefer different political institutions because of the way they allocate political power and resources. Thus democracy is preferred by the majority of citizens, but opposed by elites. Dictatorship nevertheless is not stable when citizens can threaten social disorder and revolution. In response, when the costs of repression are sufficiently high and promises of concessions are not credible, elites may be forced to create democracy. By democratizing, elites credibly transfer political power to the citizens, ensuring social stability. Democracy consolidates when elites do not have strong incentive to overthrow it. These processes depend on (1) the strength of civil society, (2) the structure of political institutions, (3) the nature of political and economic crises, (4) the level of economic inequality, (5) the structure of the economy, and (6) the form and extent of globalization.

Author : Petr Špecián
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 181 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2022-06-08
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781000598544

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Behavioral Political Economy and Democratic Theory by Petr Špecián Pdf

Drawing on current debates at the frontiers of economics, psychology, and political philosophy, this book explores the challenges that arise for liberal democracies from a confrontation between modern technologies and the bounds of human rationality. With the ongoing transition of democracy’s underlying information economy into the digital space, threats of disinformation and runaway political polarization have been gaining prominence. Employing the economic approach informed by behavioral sciences’ findings, the book’s chief concern is how these challenges can be addressed while preserving a commitment to democratic values and maximizing the epistemic benefits of democratic decision-making. The book has two key strands: it provides a systematic argument for building a behaviorally informed theory of democracy; and it examines how scientific knowledge on quirks and bounds of human rationality can inform the design of resilient democratic institutions. Drawing these together, the book explores the centrality of the rationality assumption in the methodological debates surrounding behavioral sciences as exemplified by the dispute between neoclassical and behavioral economics; the role of (ir)rationality in democratic social choice; behaviorally informed paternalism as a response to the challenge of irrationality; and non-paternalistic avenues to increase the resilience of the democratic institutions toward political irrationality. This book is invaluable reading for anyone interested in behavioral economics and sciences, political philosophy, and the future of democracy.

Author : Robert A. Dahl
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 168 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 1956
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0226134261

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A Preface to Democratic Theory by Robert A. Dahl Pdf

Robert Dahl's Preface helped launch democratic theory fifty years ago as a new area of study in political science, and it remains the standard introduction to the field. Exploring problems that had been left unsolved by traditional thought on democracy, Dahl here examines two influential models--the Madisonian, which represents prevailing American doctrine, and its recurring challenger, populist theory--arguing that they do not accurately portray how modern democracies operate. He then constructs a model more consistent with how contemporary democracies actually function, and, in doing so, develops some original views of popular sovereignty and the American constitutional system.

Author : Kristen R. Monroe,Kristen Renwick Monroe
Publisher : Addison Wesley Publishing Company
Page : 492 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 1991
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : STANFORD:36105110942104

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The Economic Approach to Politics by Kristen R. Monroe,Kristen Renwick Monroe Pdf

Author : Albert Breton
Publisher : Springer
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2016-05-20
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781349023875

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Economic Theory of Representative Government by Albert Breton Pdf

Author : Robert Cameron Mitchell,Richard T. Carson
Publisher : Resources for the Future
Page : 496 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0915707322

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Using Surveys to Value Public Goods by Robert Cameron Mitchell,Richard T. Carson Pdf

Provides decision makers, policy analysts, and social scientists, with a detailed discussion of a new techniques for the valuation of goods not traded in prevate markets.

Author : Anne van Aaken,Christian List
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 464 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2017-03-02
Category : Law
ISBN : 9781351945493

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Deliberation and Decision by Anne van Aaken,Christian List Pdf

Deliberation and Decision explores ways of bridging the gap between two rival approaches to theorizing about democratic institutions: constitutional economics on the one hand and deliberative democracy on the other. The two approaches offer very different accounts of the functioning and legitimacy of democratic institutions. Although both highlight the importance of democratic consent, their accounts of such consent could hardly be more different. Constitutional economics models individuals as self-interested rational utility maximizers and uses economic efficiency criteria such as incentive compatibility for evaluating institutions. Deliberative democracy models individuals as communicating subjects capable of engaging in democratic discourse. The two approaches are disjointed not only in terms of their assumptions and methodology but also in terms of the communication - or lack thereof - between their respective communities of researchers. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the recent debate between the two approaches and makes new and original contributions to that debate.

Author : Anthony Downs
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 20 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 1957
Category : Democracy
ISBN : NWU:35556032073470

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An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy by Anthony Downs Pdf

Author : Hervé Crès,Mich Tvede
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2021-07-29
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780192647580

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Democracy, the Market, and the Firm by Hervé Crès,Mich Tvede Pdf

Why are collective choices so stable and easy to make in practice, when in theory it should be totally otherwise? This question has puzzled social scientists since Condorcet in the eighteenth century. A striking illustration of this puzzle is the almost unanimous support of shareholders in publicly traded companies to the motions tabled by directors. Democracy, the Market, and the Firm investigates the behavioural assumptions leading to an alignment of shareholders, even in a context of severe market failures, and provides an analysis of the philosophical and axiomatic underpinnings of these assumptions. In sum, and figuratively, Crès and Tvede argue that the invisible hand of the market and the active hand of democracy can work hand in hand to give rise to a better world. The first part of the book explores the interplay between the voting and trading mechanisms. Two main arguments are proposed: on the one hand, the better the market works, the easier it is for majority voting to achieve political stability; on the other hand, among all market equilibria, those that are politically stable are more likely to be economically efficient. The second part of the book explores the feedback from collective choices to individual preferences.

Author : Lars Udehn
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 468 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2002-09-11
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781134802029

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The Limits of Public Choice by Lars Udehn Pdf

Public choice has been one of the most important developments in the social sciences in the last twenty years. However there are many people who are frustrated by the uncritical importing of ideas from economics into political science. Public Choice uses both empirical evidence and theoretical analysis to argue that the economic theory of politics is limited in scope and fertility. In order to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of political life, political scientists must learn from both economists and sociologists.

Author : Rosanne Currarino
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2010-10-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780252090103

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The Labor Question in America by Rosanne Currarino Pdf

In The Labor Question in America: Economic Democracy in the Gilded Age, Rosanne Currarino traces the struggle to define the nature of democratic life in an era of industrial strife. As Americans confronted the glaring disparity between democracy's promises of independence and prosperity and the grim realities of economic want and wage labor, they asked, "What should constitute full participation in American society? What standard of living should citizens expect and demand?" Currarino traces the diverse efforts to answer to these questions, from the fledgling trade union movement to contests over immigration, from economic theory to popular literature, from legal debates to social reform. The contradictory answers that emerged--one stressing economic participation in a consumer society, the other emphasizing property ownership and self-reliance--remain pressing today as contemporary scholars, journalists, and social critics grapple with the meaning of democracy in post-industrial America.

Author : Michael Poole
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 172 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2017-09-29
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781351391085

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The Origins of Economic Democracy by Michael Poole Pdf

This work, originally published in 1989, examines a highly important phenomenon: the growth of profit-sharing and share-ownership schemes for employees within the company. The Origins of Economic Democracy traces the origins and developments of such schemes internationally, and presents an explanatory framework for understanding their emergence. Both legislation and economic conditions play key roles in determining the popularity of such schemes for companies and their employees. The subject of profit-sharing is of vital importance to companies endeavouring to improve their financial performance while increasing the degree of job satisfaction and organizational loyalty of staff members.

Author : Orville Brim
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 245 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2017-07-28
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781351304559

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The Economic Theory of Representative Government by Orville Brim Pdf

This book provides a theory capable of explaining the patterns of public expenditures and taxation that occur under representative government. Economists and political scientists have come to realize that issues of public policy and public finance cannot be solved on the naive assumption that these are problems tackled by a government that exists only to serve the public good. Instead, government must be understood as one of the major economic institutions of society, one that behaves like more familiar economic institutions--the household and the firm--though the market it confronts is a market for policies rather than for goods and services. Albert Breton's pathbreaking work remains important in taking us toward a theory of representative government that enables an understanding of the observed behavior of political institutions. The author's analysis is cast in a relatively simple demand, supply and demand-supply-equilibrium framework, using the tools of marginal and stability analysis to explain the forces that influence and determine the flow of resources as they are allocated between competing ends in the public sector. The book presents a model of demand by citizens, who are assumed to be maximizing their desires for specific public policies and private goods, and a model of the supply of public policies by politicians and bureaucrats, who are assumed to be maximizing the probability of their re-election and the size of their budgets. Breton defines government policies and the institutional framework for collective choices in terms that render them amenable to further analysis. The main accomplishment of Breton's theory is that it provides the ability to analyze the interaction of individuals and generates testable propositions about the behavior of these individuals as well as about the behavior of public expenditures and taxation in more aggregative terms. In this way the book will be useful to students of economics, economists, and those interested in economic theory.