by David Gastwirth This week’s Road to the White House examined the merits and criticisms of an upcoming California ballot measure, Proposition 35 – the “Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act” (CASE) Initiative. Coming into the panel, I really could not understand how there could be strong opposition to tougher sanctions Read more…
Governance Salon featuring Michael Neblo, Ohio State University Participatory democrats often criticize deliberative democracy as an inefficient, elitist, technocratic attempt to manipulate the public toward policies favored by elites. On the other hand, critics less sanguine about the capacities of the citizenry attack deliberative democrats as hopelessly naïve in Read more…
The Power of Economic Interests Under Direct versus Representative Democracy
The power of economic interest groups to influence policy outcomes is a common theme in economics and political science. Most theories posit that interest group power arises from the ability to influence elected or appointed government officials, that is, by exploiting the representative part of democracy. This paper examines an unstated implication of these theories, that special interest influence will be weaker under direct democracy, when there are no representatives involved.