Book Review, Democracy Despite Itself: Why a System that Shouldn't Work at All Works so Well By Danny Oppenheimer and Mike Edwards
Wis. Law., Sept. 2012, @ 40.
3 Pages Posted: 7 Jun 2012 Last revised: 19 Sep 2012
Date Written: June 6, 2012
Abstract
It’s an election year, and once again many of us long for a swift end to the negative campaign ads, reports of voter fraud and gerrymandering, and sound-bite yapping of political pundits that passes for news. In the midst of that longing, we often wonder if this system of government truly represents the wishes of the people. In Democracy Despite Itself: Why a System That Shouldn’t Work at All Works So Well, Mike Edwards, political scientist and founder of Leftfielder.org, and Danny Oppenheimer, Princeton University psychologist, attempt to make sense of our system by stating and investigating this basic paradox: “If voters are irrational and uninformed, and the election process flawed, why is democracy successful?”
Keywords: book review
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