The Democratic Dilemma
Can Citizens Learn What They Need to Know?

CAD$37.95 (G)

Part of Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions

Authors:
Arthur Lupia, University of California, San Diego
Mathew D. McCubbins, University of California, San Diego

Date Published: March 1998
availability: Available
format: Paperback
isbn: 9780521585934

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Description

Most citizens seem underinformed about politics. Many experts claim that only well-informed citizens can make good political decisions. Is this claim correct? In The Democratic Dilemma, Professors Lupia and McCubbins combine insights from political science, economics and the cognitive sciences to explain how citizens gather and use information. They show when citizens who lack information can (and cannot) make the same decisions they would have made if better informed. As a result, they clarify the debate about citizen competence.
- Theory of politics that integrates insights from political science, public opinion, economics, psychology and cognitive science
- Specific about when limited information does and does not prevent reasoned choice
- Employs formal models of learning and choice, lab experiments on persuasion and delegation, public opinion surveys, and case studies
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Reviews & endorsements
"The Democratic Dilemma is an impressive treatment of one of the most important issues in democratic theory: the individual's inability to make fully informed decisions. This book shows that rational ignorance and the continuous pursuit of knowledge, are inseparable concepts, with far-reaching implications for the analysis of politics. It redefines the research agenda in democratic theory and information. This book is a must for all students of political institutions." Pablo T. Spiller, University of California, Berkeley
"This book is a must read for anyone interested in the design of democratic institutions." Roberta Romano, Yale Law School
"The Democratic Dilemma does for modern democracy what Aristotle's Rhetoric did for ancient Athens....This combination of classic and modern insight results in a powerful and compelling book." Mark Turner, University of Maryland
"Drawing on rational choice theory, cognitive science, experimental methods, and just plain old fashioned common sense, they develop a tight and compelling argument about information, persuasion, institutions, and democratic performance." Kenneth A. Shepsle, Harvard University
"Lupia and McCubbins have created a powerful, methodoologically sophisticated tool....Graduate collections." Choice
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Product details
- Date Published: March 1998
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521585934
- length: 300 pages
- dimensions: 228 x 152 x 24 mm
- weight: 0.405kg
- contains: 24 b/w illus.
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
List of tables and figures
Series editors' preface
Acknowledgements
1. Knowledge and the foundation of democracy
Part I. Theory:
2. How people learn
3. How people learn from others
4. What people learn from others
5. Delegation and democracy
Part II. Experiments:
6. Theory, predictions and the scientific method
7. Laboratory experiments on information, persuasion and choice
8. Laboratory experiments on delegation
9. A survey on the conditions for persuasion
Part III. Implications for Institutional Design:
10. The institutions of knowledge
Afterword
Appendices
References
Author index
Subject index.
Look Inside
Authors
Arthur Lupia, University of California, San Diego
Mathew D. McCubbins, University of California, San Diego