Donald Wittman's "Why Democracies Produce Efficient Results," argues that the "markets work, democracy fails" outlook typical of many economists rests on bad economics. After summarizing Wittman's main arguments, I maintain that Wittman too hastily accepts the assumption of voter rationality. There is an extensive body of empirical evidence showing that systematically biased beliefs about politically-relevant topics—especially economics—are widespread. Chicago political economy would have developed in a more productive direction if it had treated rational expectations as an empirical hypothesis, and modeled irrationality as a normal good.
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Article provided by Atlas Economic Research Foundation in its journal Econ Journal Watch.
Find related papers by JEL classification: D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
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