Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels, Democracy for Realists

This is a top work of political science by two major scholars of American politics, Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government.

I just finished Chapter 1. The authors take on what they call the "folk theory" of democratic governance, which is the ideal conception of democracy and electoral politics envisioning majority rule and an informed electorate. They're especially critical of the "retrospective theory of elections," which has been one of the more popular explanations of voting behavior in recent years. The approach, however, doesn't tell us much about electoral outcomes, other than a fickleness surrounding current political and economic issues that tend to make the elections akin to a coin flip.

Achen and Bartels argue that rather than government effectiveness and policy preferences, partisanship and social identity more powerfully determine voter choice and democratic outcomes. The book's amazingly jargon-free so far, and is hence well-suited to the general reader while still deeply embedded within the longstanding debates on democratic theory in American political science.

I'm enjoying it.

In any case, check out more at Amazon, Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government.

I'll have more on the book later. I'm gearing up for my fall semester preparations (syllabus writing, class digital supplements, and so forth), so I thought it'd be good to read some real "science-y" type literature before school starts.