Political Theory

New Theories of Democratic Failure

ABSTRACT

This Socratic seminar explored two recent books that reformulate the traditional theory of democratic failure: Bryan Caplan’s The Myth of the Rational Voter (2007), and Guido Pincione and Fernando Tesón’s Rational Choice and Democratic Deliberation (2006).

READING LIST

Conference Readings

Caplan, Bryan. The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.

Pincione, Guido and Fernando Tesón. Rational Choice and Democratic Deliberation. A Theory of Discourse Failure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.