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    Is democracy an option for the realist?

    Ahlstrom-Vij, Kristoffer (2018) Is democracy an option for the realist? Critical Review 30 (1-2), pp. 1-12. ISSN 0891-3811.

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    Abstract

    In Democracy for Realists, Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels argue that the depressingly well-established fact that people are woefully ignorant on politically relevant matters renders democratic ideals mere “fairy tales.” However, this iconoclasm stands in deep tension with the prescriptions they themselves end up offer-ing towards the end of the book, which coincide to a surprising extent with those that have been offered by democrats for decades. This is a problem because, if we take seriously the type of data that Achen and Bartels rely on (and add to)—data that should make us realists in the sense of the book’s title—it is not clear that democracy in any recognizable sense remains an option for the realist.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis, available online at the link above.
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Christopher Achen, Larry Bartels, democratic realism, retrospective voting, social identity
    School: School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy > Philosophy
    Depositing User: Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij
    Date Deposited: 28 Feb 2018 13:54
    Last Modified: 11 Jun 2021 07:07
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/21380

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