TY - JOUR

T1 - Democratic Participation

AU - Chakravarty, Shanti

N1 - Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

PY - 2018/9

Y1 - 2018/9

N2 - Democracy is not just about the choice of policy determined by the aggregation of ballots cast in elections. It is also about managing tensions which may arise between proclaimed virtues of democratic values and the vicissitudes of public opinion. Further, a conundrum arises because it is not for the electorate to spend time and energy acquiring specialist knowledge about the efficacy of action, but the voters expect to be consulted on policy. It is a lofty ideal of democracy that the electorate can hold government responsible for adverse outcomes not expected by the voters when casting their ballots on policy. Resort to referendums does not necessarily resolve these contradictory demands of democracy, but it can amplify them.

AB - Democracy is not just about the choice of policy determined by the aggregation of ballots cast in elections. It is also about managing tensions which may arise between proclaimed virtues of democratic values and the vicissitudes of public opinion. Further, a conundrum arises because it is not for the electorate to spend time and energy acquiring specialist knowledge about the efficacy of action, but the voters expect to be consulted on policy. It is a lofty ideal of democracy that the electorate can hold government responsible for adverse outcomes not expected by the voters when casting their ballots on policy. Resort to referendums does not necessarily resolve these contradictory demands of democracy, but it can amplify them.

U2 - 10.1007/s41412-018-0074-7

DO - 10.1007/s41412-018-0074-7

M3 - Article

VL - 35

SP - 235

EP - 254

JO - Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics

JF - Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics

SN - 2366-6161

IS - 3

ER -