European University Institute Library

Altruism and self-interest in democracies, individual participation in government, Richard Jankowski

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-186) and index

index present

non fiction

Altruism and self-interest in democracies

bibliography

904715309

Richard Jankowski

individual participation in government

"Individuals have little incentive to vote, acquire political information or contribute campaign funds, because their vote has very little chance of affecting the outcome of an election. Jankowski offers an explanation and evidence for political participation based on the fact that most individuals are weakly altruistic. Other proposed explanations of political participation (civic duty and expressive behavior) are not supported by the evidence, or fail to explain the many different forms of political participation, such as the acquisition of political information. Evidence is presented that liberals and conservatives are equally altruistic. Therefore, an explanation of why liberals and conservatives differ in their support of various government programs to help the needy is presented. Jankowski's analysis examines both the electoral and post-electoral phases of representative democracy. In the post-election phase, interest groups and elected representatives dominate the policy process. It is shown that altruistic individuals exert their influence primarily through public interest groups"--, Provided by publisher

1. Introduction -- 2. Why Participate in Politics? : Beyond Self-Interest -- 3. Why Vote?: The Evidence -- 4. Why Become Politically Informed? -- 5. The Post-Election Phase : Public Interest Groups -- 6. A Gene for Altruism? -- 7. Altruism and Redistributive Government Policies -- 8. Altruistic Conservatives : Varieties of Conservatism -- 9. An Epistemic Defense of Democracy : Democracies Do it Better? -- 10. Representative Democracy: Electoral and Post-Electoral Phases