Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government

Abstract

List of Illustrations ix Preface xiii 1 Democratic Ideals and Realities 1 2 The Elusive Mandate: Elections and the Mirage of Popular Control 21 3 Tumbling Down into a Democratical Republick: Pure and the Pitfalls of Popular Control 52 4 A Rational God of Vengeance and of Reward? The Logic of Retrospective Accountability 90 5 Blind Retrospection: Electoral Responses to Droughts, Floods, and Shark Attacks 116 6 Musical Chairs: Economic Voting and the Specious Present 146 7 A Chicken in Every Pot: Ideology and Retrospection in the Great Depression 177 8 The Very Basis of Reasons: Groups, Social Identities, and Political Psychology 213 9 Partisan Hearts and Spleens: Social Identities and Political Change 232 10 It Feels Like We're Th inking: Th e Rationalizing Voter 267 11 Groups and Power: Toward a Realist Th eory of Democracy 297 Appendix Retrospective Voting as Selection and Sanctioning 329 References 335 Index 371

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