The best political book this year.
Nicholas D. Kristof, 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.'
Louis Menand, The New Yorker One of the two or three best books on public choice in the ... Read morelast twenty years.
Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution Like a few recent best sellers
Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, The Wisdom of Crowds
The Myth of the Rational Voter unwraps economic theories and applies them to everyday life. Mr. Caplan's thesis, though, lacks any semblance of a compliment: The 'unwisdom of crowds' is closer to his point. He believes that the American public is biased against sensible, empirically proved economic policies about which nearly all economists agree. Voters, he says, are not just ignorant in the sense of having insufficient information. They actually hold wrong-headed and damaging beliefs about how the economy works.
Daniel Casse, The Wall Street Journal [P]rovocative.
Elsa Dixler, New York Times Book Review The Myth of the Rational Voter usefully extends the discussion [about democracy] by linking it with 'public choice' theory... Public choice theory faces a dilemma. A rational and self-interested person has no incentive to study political issues, as the chances of his or her determining the outcome are negligible. This has become known as 'rational ignorance'. Caplan maintains that the reality is much worse. He shows that voters are not just ignorant but systematically biased in favor of mistaken views.
Samuel Brittan, Financial Times Caplan is right to detect a stubborn irrationality in ordinary voters and he correctly points out to his rational choice colleagues that their models are hopelessly unrealistic.
Martin Leet, Australian Review of Public Affairs Caplan argues convincingly that irrational behaviour is pervasive among many of us today... Caplan's point, however, is that most voters are irrational. And that is worse than being ignorant... Their irrationality comes with a host of misconceptions that drive policy choices.
Fazil Mihlar, The Vancouver Sun This engaging and provocative volume describes why democracy gives us far less than its promise. Countering existing theories of rationally ignorant voters, Caplan argues persuasively that voters are irrational, registering systematically biased beliefs
and consequently votes
against markets and other sound economy policy metrics... [T]his is a compelling book, offering readers a well-written and well-argued competing theory for why democracy fails and why we should limit what is done through the political process.
M. Steckbeck, Choice [Caplan] argues that voters' own irrational biases, rather than flaws in the democratic process, compel voters to support policies that are not in their interest. While one may quibble with his specifics, the overall argument is convincing and applicable across a variety of fields...Forces the reader to take a second look at our nation's unshakable faith in the wisdom of the electorate.
Pio Szamel, Harvard Political Review A brilliant and disturbing analysis of decision making by electorates that
[Caplan] documents
are perversely ignorant and woefully misinformed.
Neil Reynolds, The Globe and Mail Scintillating... Outstanding.
Gene Epstein, Barron's Magazine Kudos to Caplan for not wanting to leave well enough alone, but he could have given democracy more credit for diffusing
to the relatively benign act of voting
irrational and reactionary human behaviour that has in the past led to violence and war. In the meantime, it certainly would not hurt for more people to learn about the law of supply and demand.
Adam Fleisher, International Affairs Caplan's book is a major accomplishment, which breaks new ground in our understanding of democratic politics and opens up a new research territory for further exploration.
Gene Callahan, Independent Review [Persons] who do not grasp the lessons in Bryan's book cannot understand politics as well as persons who do grasp those lessons. Buy a copy. Read it. Ponder it. Learn.
Don Bourdreaux, Cafe Hayek Show Less