Democracy and Political Ignorance; Why Smaller Government Is Smarter

Stanford, CA: Stanford Law Books [An Imprint of Stanford University Press], 2013. Presumed First Paperback Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. Very good. x, [2], 264, [2] pages. Tables. Tabular data. Appendix. Notes. Index. Inscribed by the author on the half-title page. Inscription reads For Robert Hanrahan, Ilya Somin 11/6/13. One of the biggest problems with modern democracy is that most of the public is usually ignorant of politics and government. Often, many people understand that their votes are unlikely to change the outcome of an election and don't see the point in learning much about politics. This may be rational, but it creates a nation of people with little political knowledge and little ability to objectively evaluate what they do know. In Democracy and Political Ignorance, Ilya Somin mines the depths of ignorance in America and reveals the extent to which it is a major problem for democracy. Somin weighs various options for solving this problem, arguing that political ignorance is best mitigated and its effects lessened by decentralizing and limiting government. Somin provocatively argues that people make better decisions when they choose what to purchase in the market or which state or local government to live under, than when they vote at the ballot box, because they have stronger incentives to acquire relevant information and to use it wisely. Ilya Somin is Professor of Law at George Mason University. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, democratic theory, federalism, and migration rights. He is the author of Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter, and The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain, coauthor of A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case, and co-editor of Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective. Democracy and Political Ignorance has been translated into Italian and Japanese. Somin's work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Critical Review, and others. Somin has also published articles in a variety of popular press outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, CNN, USA Today, US News and World Report, Legal Times, National Law Journal and Reason. He has been quoted or interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, The Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, The Guardian, the Associated Press, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Reuters, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America, among other media. Somin's writings have been cited in decisions by the United States Supreme Court, multiple state supreme courts and lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of Israel. Somin writes regularly for the popular Volokh Conspiracy law and politics blog, now affiliated with Reason magazine. From 2006 to 2013, he served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review, one of the country's top-rated law and economics journals. Before joining the faculty at George Mason, Somin was the John M. Olin Fellow in Law at Northwestern University Law School in 2002-2003. . Professor Somin earned his BA, Summa Cum Laude, at Amherst College, MA in Political Science from Harvard University, and JD from Yale Law School.