ECONOMICS Lecture Notes - Anthony Downs, Direct Democracy, Public Choice
9 Dec 2021
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Anthony downs" influential book an economic theory of democracy published in 1957 provided the methodological framework for a good deal of the positive analysis of public choice and the economic theory of politics. He has given a theory of representative democracy which discarded the assumption that individual voters participate directly in the decision making process. Here, the voters are delegated to legislative representatives who seek elections of nominees of political parties. One feature of political life in a representative democracy is the existence of political parties, which represent the views of those who elect them into office. Existence of political parties may reduce the costs of participating in the process of political exchange. In the absence of elected representatives, as in a direct democracy, each individual who wishes to be informed about the relative costs and benefits of each alternative policy would be required to spend time and resources acquiring information.
