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The Democratic Dilemma

Can Citizens Learn What They Need to Know?

Arthur Lupia author Mathew D McCubbins author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:13th Mar '98

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Democratic Dilemma cover

This book clarifies the debate about citizen competence in democratic politics.

Most citizens seem under-informed 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.Voters cannot answer simple survey questions about politics. Legislators cannot recall the details of legislation. Jurors cannot comprehend legal arguments. Observations such as these are plentiful and several generations of pundits and scholars have used these observations to claim that voters, legislators, and jurors are incompetent. Are these claims correct? Do voters, jurors, and legislators who lack political information make bad decisions? In The Democratic Dilemma, Professors Arthur Lupia and Mathew McCubbins explain how citizens make decisions about complex issues. Combining insights from economics, political science, and the cognitive sciences, they seek to develop theories and experiments about learning and choice. They use these tools to identify the requirements for reasoned choice - the choice that a citizen would make if she possessed a certain (perhaps, greater) level of knowledge. The results clarify debates about voter, juror, and legislator competence and also reveal how the design of political institutions affects citizens' abilities to govern themselves effectively.

'Lupia and McCubbins competently and clearly shed light on the foundations of how citizens learn.' Political Studies

ISBN: 9780521585934

Dimensions: 228mm x 152mm x 24mm

Weight: 405g

300 pages