The Myth of the Rational Voter

Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies

By: Bryan Caplan

Narrated by: David Drummond

The greatest obstacle to sound economic policy is not entrenched special interests or rampant lobbying, but the popular misconceptions, irrational beliefs, and personal biases held by ordinary voters. This is economist Bryan Caplan's sobering assessment in this provocative and eye-opening book.

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. Boldly 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 Americans' voting behavior and opinions on a range of economic issues, he makes the convincing 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 bold ways to make democratic government work better - for example, urging economic educators to focus on correcting popular misconceptions and reccomending that democracies do less and let markets take up the slack.

The Myth of the Rational Voter takes an unflinching look at how people who vote under the influence of false beliefs ultimately end up with government that delivers lousy results. With the upcoming presidential election season drawing nearer, this thought-provoking book is sure to spark a long-overdue reappraisal of our elective system.

This book is published by Princeton University Press.

©2007 Princeton University Press (P)2010 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"The best political book this year." ( The New York Times)

"Caplan thinks that democracy as it is now practiced cannot be salvaged, and his position is based on a simple observation: 'Democracy is a commons, not a market.'" ( The New Yorker)

Very relevant

In the wake of political controversy with the election of an incompetent president, Caplan gives us sound explanation for this event. It is truly incredible how Caplan reasoned his way to a conclusion of voter irrationality that now has a 1 for 1 case study in politics biggest stage.

Often Marginalizes Individual Beliefs

Among other distasteful things in this book, the author clearly subsumes that democracy is embodied in the U.S. constitution. In reality, the word democracy is nowhere found in the constitution! Having said this, Mr. Caplan would no doubt call me a "fundamentalist"; this was a chacterazation that he often used in this book.

I am convinced that Mr. Caplan is an atheist with a distinctive Darwinian humanist world view, and he makes every effort to dispense with the voting public who may have religious beliefs. Beliefs which actually affect their lives - not just their voting decisions. His references to such people are typified with the term "irrational" or "irrational rationality" (if they happen to per chance, vote the "right way").

Instead of revealing the underlying cause for democracy's inherent weaknesses, Mr. Caplan chooses instead to highlight examples of specific voter illogic. In fairness, some of the examples he uses are both interesting and humorous. He nevertheless unfailingly believes that its not the institution of democracy, but the voters who are defective. I am reminded of what Benjamin Franklin said to a woman who asked him what they (those at the Philadelphia convention) had "wrought". He said, a "republic if you can keep it". I will simply say; there is a huge difference between a Democracy and a Republic!

Additionally, David Drummond (if I didn't know otherwise) sounded as if he was the author. If only all audiobooks could be read that way!

Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended

Goes deep into complex subject matter while making sure you understand every word, just lovely.

This is partly why Libertarianism is the best

Every night the alphabet networks swing into action.... Attempting to spin nonsense into gold.... Fleas arguing over the dog's ass.

They miss the entire point... You can't have rational policies from irrational beings who stay elected (98% incumbency win rate), Voted in by overly emotional, uniformed, pre-indoctrinated beings JUST LIKE the ones they vote for.

I don't know of a single instance of people electing a more powerful, centralized government in the history of mankind where most peoples lives, and in many of the arenas of their lives improved.

That's why Dr Bryan Caplan is a Libertarian too!

Makes you think. And that’s good

Few people dare to commit the heresy of pointing Democracy’s flaws. This book not only does it, but also explains it with strong arguments. A must read for the person that doesn’t takes things for granted.

Fantastic book for understanding voter mind

Fantastic book that really puts an accurate perspective around why and what people are voting for.

Conclusions are not great

He's obably right about voters irrationality, and probably wrong about possible solutions (especially regarding the franchise; wouldn't "delegate economic regulation to agencies run by economists" be a lot better than "preferentially enfranchise economists & their followers"?).

Excellent read

I'm not a libertarian, but loved the book. Gives a welcoming new perspective on democracy, especially if you always questioned yourself about its true efficacy.

Interesting

Overall the content of the book was interesting and the author does a good job of making his argument. The book is somewhat hindered by being in audio format.

* Even with the headers between sections, it can be hard to tell where they are. It would help it the reader had paused briefly for them.
* The author likes to do lots of block quotes surrounded by prose. Given he is typically quoting contemporary writers, it can be hard to tell when the quote starts. This is a problem audible has in general.

With those complaints in mind, the book is still quite interesting and thought provoking. I still recommend listening to it.

Amazing book based on tons of data

Caplan is one of the few authors who seems to use even more data than I do in his books. Using strict logic and facts, he explains why voters are terribly irrational and why democracy is a terrible way to organize society.