Larry Bartels on Democracy for Realists

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Mike talks to Vanderbilt University political scientist Larry Bartels about his book (co-authored with Christopher Achen) Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government.

Topics Mike and Larry discuss include:

– identity politics
– tribalism
– the ‘folk theory’ of democracy and why it’s wrong
– inattentive, uninformed, and irrational voters
– if the problem of ‘bad voters’ has been getting worse recently
– if polarization is really such a big deal
– the potential problem of too much democracy
– what we can do to get more responsive government

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