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Democratic devices and desires

Democratic devices and desires
Democratic devices and desires
This book offers a novel account of key features of modern representative democracy. Working from the rational actor tradition, it builds a middle ground between orthodox political theory and the economic analysis of politics. Standard economic models of politics emphasise the design of the institutional devices of democracy as operated by essentially self-interested individuals. This book departs from that model by focusing on democratic desires alongside democratic devices, stressing that important aspects of democracy depend on the motivation of democrats and the interplay between devices and desires. Individuals are taken to be not only rational, but also somewhat moral. The authors argue that this approach provides access to aspects of the debate on democratic institutions that are beyond the narrowly economic model. They apply their analysis to voting, elections, representation, political departments and the separation and division of powers, providing a wide-ranging discussion of the design of democratic institutions
0521630207
Cambridge University Press
Brennan, Geoffrey
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Hamlin, Alan
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Brennan, Geoffrey
f5def8d6-7caf-4304-80a6-9ca276ee91b6
Hamlin, Alan
f7d1bc67-817f-4c69-b8a0-6ea5725e664f

Brennan, Geoffrey and Hamlin, Alan (2000) Democratic devices and desires (Theories of Institutional Design), Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press, 278pp.

Record type: Book

Abstract

This book offers a novel account of key features of modern representative democracy. Working from the rational actor tradition, it builds a middle ground between orthodox political theory and the economic analysis of politics. Standard economic models of politics emphasise the design of the institutional devices of democracy as operated by essentially self-interested individuals. This book departs from that model by focusing on democratic desires alongside democratic devices, stressing that important aspects of democracy depend on the motivation of democrats and the interplay between devices and desires. Individuals are taken to be not only rational, but also somewhat moral. The authors argue that this approach provides access to aspects of the debate on democratic institutions that are beyond the narrowly economic model. They apply their analysis to voting, elections, representation, political departments and the separation and division of powers, providing a wide-ranging discussion of the design of democratic institutions

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Published date: April 2000

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 32943
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/32943
ISBN: 0521630207
PURE UUID: c6215fd8-4965-42a8-9c7f-5e7df36259a7

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Date deposited: 18 Jul 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 07:40

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Contributors

Author: Geoffrey Brennan
Author: Alan Hamlin

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