An Economic Theory of Democracy,9780060417505

An Economic Theory of Democracy

by
Edition: 1st
ISBN13: 9780060417505
ISBN10: 0060417501
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 1997-01-21
Publisher(s): Pearson
List Price: $126.65

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Summary

This book seeks to elucidate its subject-the governing of democratic state-by making intelligible the party politics of democracies. Downs treats this differently than do other students of politics. His explanations are systematically related to, and deducible from, precisely stated assumptions about the motivations that attend the decisions of voters and parties and the environment in which they act. He is consciously concerned with the economy in explanation, that is, with attempting to account for phenomena in terms of a very limited number of facts and postulates. He is concerned also with the central features of party politics in any democratic state, not with that in the United States or any other single country.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix
PART I BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE MODEL 3(74)
1. Introduction
3(18)
2. Party Motivation and the Function of Government in Society
21(15)
3. The Basic Logic of Voting
36(15)
4. The Basic Logic of Government Decision-Making
51(26)
PART II THE GENERAL EFFECTS OF UNCERTAINTY 77(130)
5. The Meaning of Uncertainty
77(5)
6. How Uncertainty Affects Government Decision-Making
82(14)
7. The Development of Political Ideologies as Means of Getting Votes
96(18)
8. The Statics and Dynamics of Party Ideologies
114(28)
9. Problems of Rationality Under Coalition Governments
142(22)
10. Government Vote-Maximizing and Individual Marginal Equilibrium
164(43)
PART III SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF INFORMATION COSTS 207(72)
11. The Process of Becoming Informed
207(13)
12. How Rational Citizens Reduce Information Costs
220(18)
13. The Returns from Information and Their Diminution
238(22)
14. The Causes and Effects of Rational Abstention
260(19)
PART IV DERIVATIVE IMPLICATIONS AND HYPOTHESES 279(22)
15. A Comment on Economic Theories of Government Behavior
279(16)
16. Testable Propositions Derived from the Theory
295(6)
Bibliography 301(4)
Index of Names 305(1)
Index of Subjects 306

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