The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies

Review

Strongly counters the idea that "voters are rational, but just ignorant". Instead arguing for a rational irrationality where voting is a public good without personal cost, so people are very reasonably irrational and ignorant. Generally explores democracies systemic shortcomings with interesting counter intuitive takes and compelling arguments. Great thesis, but the book struck me as too lengthy for the point. This would have made an amazing essay, but the author's intro does argue books > essays so I guess it makes sense. The intended audience seems to be some academic economist as every potential counterargument is painstaking countered and every point over argued. Countering some economists paper becomes more important than explaining why economists disagree with the average voter. Takeaways: "Democracy is wildly overrated" "Good intentions are ubiquitous in politics, what is scarce is accurate beliefs" "Voters are worse than ignorant, they are irrational" => People are systematically biased which the media and politicians cater to. They are pessimistic with an antimarket bias, antiforeign/immigrant bias and over value trade surplus and saving jobs. Do not encourage voter turnout, because average voter is already better informed than a nonvoters.