An Economic Theory of Democracy

Rating:
Summary: The most misunderstood book in political science
Review: An Economic Theory of Democracy is among the most influential books in political science. It is also among the most misunderstood. The book has 300 pages of content. The famous median voter theorem represents three of them. The remaining 297 pages involve extensions, limitations and generalizations -- exactly the sort of thing that most critics think it lacks. In the end, the book is really about the problems of limited information rather than about a unidimensional spatial model.

Rating:
Summary: Why is this book so expensive?
Review: Classic, empirical work in political science. This book is essential for any high school civics teacher, undergraduate political science major, or graduate student ... but why on EARTH is it $40 used?

Rating:
Summary: A Good Beginning
Review: Down's Economic Theory of Democracy is an easy to read introdution to the basics of voting theory. It is accessible to the casual reader as well as the hardcore acedemic. It's take on the electoral competition have become staples of high school civis as well as acedemic political theory.

Down's most famous innovation is the result that two party competition leads to both parties offering the same platform in order to maximise votes.

0-----25-----50-----75----100 ----------Rep--Dem-----------

This formulation is actually the Hotelling spatial competition model applied to elections. (I thought the economists may be interested!) Morover it froms the basis fro the median voter theorem.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Beginning
Review: Down's Economic Theory of Democracy is an easy to read introdution to the basics of voting theory. It is accessible to the casual reader as well as the hardcore acedemic. It's take on the electoral competition have become staples of high school civis as well as acedemic political theory.

Down's most famous innovation is the result that two party competition leads to both parties offering the same platform in order to maximise votes.

0-----25-----50-----75----100 ----------Rep--Dem-----------

This formulation is actually the Hotelling spatial competition model applied to elections. (I thought the economists may be interested!) Morover it froms the basis fro the median voter theorem.

Rating:
Summary: The most misunderstood book in political science
Review: Downs is the seminal piece in rat choice voting behavior - and for good reason. A clear understanding of the Downs theories of voting ties together many strands of work and allows for a good framework for scholars who follow him.

The book is a must read for political scientists and for anyone who wants to understand the voting literature.

Rating:
Summary: Good as a starting point
Review: Downs is the seminal piece in rat choice voting behavior - and for good reason. A clear understanding of the Downs theories of voting ties together many strands of work and allows for a good framework for scholars who follow him.

The book is a must read for political scientists and for anyone who wants to understand the voting literature.