EconLog: Library of Economics and Liberty:
I hate to see people get all caught up in national elections. The Presidential election is, as CNN puts it so well, a Ballot Bowl, analogous to the Super Bowl. It is a marketing extravanganza for centralized government.
It certainly is not an occasion for the exposition and discussion of ideas. We are told that candidates favor change, but not to what they would have things change. We are told that we should hope, but not in or for what.
I would much prefer that it become a marketing extravaganza for smaller government, constitutional government, effective government, efficient government, or something else desirable instead.
Regrettably, as my late father used to say: "We live in hope and die in despair."
A curious fact about the US of A is that we have these elections. If persons wished to have a smaller, uncentralized government, they could vote for one, or more precisely for representatives who would advocate it. However, this never seems to catch on. Possibly this is because the representatives are corrupted by power the instant they set foot in Washington, or because people are deluded sheep.
But another possibility is that the voters want something different than what Arnold Kling and Bryan Caplan want. Perhaps those eminences would rather dissolve the people and elect another, as Bertolt Brecht said once in a different context.
Possibly this is because the representatives are corrupted by power the instant they set foot in Washington, or because people are deluded sheep.
Or possibly voters realize their state governments are often more corrupt than the central one.
What Ben said (but even snarkier, if possible).
They people have always cried out for a king, even after quickly dispose themselves of the previously unjust one.
Ben: Caplan is well aware the people want different things to him. He's pretty confident he is right and they are wrong. Read his book, The Myth of the Rational Voter.
James, I am familiar with Caplan's argument. I just think it's no good. He is uncomfortable with the effects of democracy when it doesn't agree with his priorities. Rather than live with it or try to persuade the voters that he is right, he and Kling (it was Kling who posted the phrase Megan quotes) carp about having to watch the spectacle of democracy.
Plato also thought society would be better off if run by philosophers (okay, philosopher kings). Another analogy is that back when Marxism was a political movement as well as a school of economics, Marxists used the phrase "false consciousness." This meant, basically, the working class being deluded into not supporting the Marxism that was in the working class's best interests - from a Marxist point of view, anyway.
Knowing better than the voting public is a time-honored tradition. However, it seems like Caplan and Kling ought to be in favor of actually selling their position to the voting public. You know, in the marketplace of ideas. Instead we get whinging.