Summary Of Bryan Caplan 's Book, The Topic Of Rational Ignorance

One factor that decreases voter turnout is the misconception that a person’s vote does not matter. Alienation is a feeling of personal powerlessness that includes the feeling that the government does not care about individual people. These people believe that the government will not respond to their concerns even if they do vote. The problem is that a large portion of the population shares this attitude. People can have negative

The behavior of voters has great importance to politics as the people decide mainly who wins. The study of the behavior of the electorate has increased as politicians seek to appeal to the voters and find ways to gain followers and most importantly votes. The two articles Democratic Practice and Democratic Theory and The Responsible Electorate discuss the behavior of voters in the United States, and the importance of the electorate.

Kozol argues that, “The number of illiterate adults exceeds by 16 million the entire vote cast for the winner in the 1980 presidential contest. Even if one third of all illiterates could vote in their self-interest, Ronald Reagan would not likely have been chosen president”(Kozol 149). When illiterate people choose a political figure to represent their views they do not know they are affecting themselves, as well as everyone else in the united states. Their vote impacts the United States because it determines who will make the important decisions, and create new policies. To be represented in what goes on in the surrounding community is a crucial aspect in democracy for illiterate people.

One reason why Americans shouldn’t be required to vote is because voting without background information might lead to wrong decisions. Evidence supporting this reason is, in document G (New York Times) (Randy Cohen) states that people that are uninformed, will end up voting for something that doesn’t endorse their interests. This evidence helps explain

Political philosopher and social theorist Thomas Sowell has once said, “It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” It is inevitable to meet an ignorant person around each corner that one turns. It is up to the victim to either let the ignorant person corrupt him or to let the victim become smarter. One of America’s greatest activists, Martin Luther King, believed that “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” With this in mind, “The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all” (Kennedy).

To every political system there are many positives and negatives and one critique of compulsory voting systems is that informal and uninterested voting is increased. It has been advocated that compulsory voting brings a large amount of “uninterested voters” to the polls and in turn cast votes that are clearly inconsistent with their own political values compared to those who are more informed and motivated voluntary voters (Selb and Latchat, 2009). In this case the primary concern is when people are forced to vote they will either pick a candidate at random or spoil their ballot which consequently, does not make the outcome of the election representative of the people’s interests. If certain individuals are not interested in politics they should not be forced to contribute in one of the most salient political statements practiced in Canada (Selb and Latchat, 2009). They have the right to choose their level of political participation.

This Federalist arguments on the limitations of mass participation also has its merits in a modern context, where voters are often indifferent, uninformed, and easily manipulated in an increasingly technological world. What Fishkin defines as “rational ignorance,” in which citizens are not motivated to go out of their way to learn and form rational opinions on policies, supports Madison’s fears. One aspect of rational ignorance illustrates the tendency of voters to vote only on policy issues relevant to them. For instance, farmers under a mass participatory system may vote only on issues related to agriculture, while remaining ignorant on other issues

What does contribute to the surprise element of the election results is the miscalculation by election projectors on who would

How do people compensate for their lack of knowledge? Many people use information shortcuts to help them make decisions on how to vote. An information shortcut is voting for a party because they know the beliefs of the party but not the specific facts of the issue or the specific candidate. Voters use information shortcuts in order to learn about a topic without spending more time. For example, author Ilya Somin wrote that 57 percent of the population did not know who Newt Gingrich was in 1994. Somin also stated, “70 percent cannot name either of their states senators. Overall, close to a third of Americans can be categorized as ‘know-nothings’ who are almost completely ignorant of relevant political information” (Somin 416-417).

“You’re a woman, how could you not vote for Hillary Clinton?” “I’m African American so I have to vote for Barack Obama.” “I need to vote for George W. Bush because he is the Republican candidate and I’m a registered Republican.” “It is my religious obligation to vote for John F. Kennedy.” “I’m from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, so I must vote for John Adams!” Since the United States gained its independence from Britain in 1776, citizens have misused one of the greatest powers granted to them by the Constitution—the power to vote! Uninformed voters feel obligated to vote for the candidate who is most like themselves, whether it be their race, gender, religion or political party. They are blinded by these identifying factors and fail to look deeper into the candidates’ positions on issues and their primary platform. This is known as voter immaturity. The key to voting responsibly is accepting the privilege of being an informed participant in a living democracy.

As politics and government becomes more complex and involved, more effort is required to keep up with and understand it. As a result, many Americans have lost touch with current events and happenings. Therefore, when election time rolls around, many people lack enough information to develop an educated opinion and support a candidate with their vote, so they just do not vote at all. This lack of information is also related to the belief that one vote will not matter. People believe that their vote will not count, and are therefore following the news less and becoming out of touch with public affairs and politics (Is the System Broken?”). This lack of information is also more strongly apparent among the younger voting population. When interviewed

In this essay, I would like to discuss the major obstacles to voting, recent changes to overcome voting barriers and the political influence of changed rules. Low turnout in the U.S. reflects that there are obstacles for people to voting and changes to overcome these obstacles may also bring new problems to different social groups. I will elaborate on these aspects in the following parts.

Wheelan argues that statistics, depending on the metrics used, can be framed to draw support for some corporate, political, or otherwise self-serving cause. In one of Wheelan’s examples (2013), he depicts two hypothetical United States political opponents: one who claims that the majority of states have had falling incomes, and another who claims that 70 percent of Americans have had rising incomes (pp. 81-82). Though these statements are not mutually exclusive, they give two contrasting impressions of the American economy—one of weakness and one of strength. Regardless of which metric more accurately describes the economy, either claim could lure in voters, who may lack the context needed to evaluate the claim. This tactic, the use of true statements in support of a dubious claim, is particularly relevant in the 2016

In his book, Tyranny of the Minority, Benjamin Bishin refers to this occurrence through his very own proposed concept called the Subconstituency Politics Theory of Representation. Centered on social psychology and reinforced by multifaceted studies on the behavior pattern illustrated in legislators’ voting, the subconstituency theory is able to effectively explain how candidates ' behavior in campaigns and legislators ' behavior in Congress are affected by the degree of knowledge and participation harbored in the average citizen. According to Bishin, a candidate’s career depends on their ability to “transform passive citizens into active

In Democracy, it is left to the citizens to make decisions, instead of a single monarchical leader. Voting in a Democracy is a responsibility, which is why most countries have age restrictions on it. Voting requires education. If someone is running for President of a country, education is knowing and understanding what their general policies are, as well as how they react to stress and criticism. A relatively small portion of the U.S. citizen population is actually qualified to vote. Qualifications for this are merely a moderate grasp on the candidate’s foreign and domestic approach.