The Myth of the Rational Voter
Also known as The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies
Bryan Caplan's 2007 argument that voters hold systematically biased beliefs about economics.
At a glance
Key ideas
Anti-market bias, Anti-foreign bias, Make-work bias …
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- Caplan challenges the idea that voters are reasonable people society can trust to make laws.
- He argues they are irrational in politics and hold systematically biased views on economics.
- Using a 1996 survey that put the same questions to the public and to economists, he names four biases.
- He explains them with "rational irrationality": a wrong belief costs a voter almost nothing, so people keep the ones they enjoy.
Why it matters
- It challenges standard public choice theory by placing the blame for bad policy on the general public rather than on politicians or special interests.
Key facts
- Author
- Bryan Caplan1
- Published
- 20071
- Data
- The 1996 Survey of Americans and Economists on the Economy: 1,510 members of the public and 250 economics PhDs1
- First version
- Its thesis was the lead essay of the November 2006 issue of Cato Unbound1
- Prompted by
- Donald Wittman's The Myth of Democratic Failure, which Caplan says awoke him from his "dogmatic public choice slumbers"1
- Reception
- Nicholas Kristof called it the "best political book of this year" in The New York Times; Walter Block gave it a mixed review1
Key ideas
-
Anti-market bias1
A "tendency to underestimate the benefits of the market mechanism", such as seeing profits as a gift to the rich.
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Anti-foreign bias1
Underestimating the gains from dealing with foreigners, so opposing free trade.
-
Make-work bias1
Equating growth with jobs, when growth comes from producing more with less labor.
-
Pessimistic bias1
Overestimating economic problems and underrating past, present and future performance.
-
Rational irrationality1
People are rational where being wrong is costly; at the ballot box it costs almost nothing.
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