Public choice and the challenges of democracy

Abstract

Nineteen papers, originally presented at an international conference organized by the Centre for Political Economy and Regulation and held in Madrid in December 2005, analyze the main threats faced by democracy at the beginning of the twenty-first century and consider possible remedies. Papers discuss threats democracy faces–an overview; social justice examined–with a little help from Adam Smith; affective public choice; Jeremy Bentham on public choice–utility, interests, and the agency problem in democracy; the move toward a more consistent design of parliamentary democracy and its consequences for the European Union; democracy, citizen sovereignty, and constitutional economics; diffuse and popular interests versus concentrated interests–the fate of environmental policies in divided government; whether the democratic model should be applied to nongovernmental organizations and firms; citizenship and democracy in international organizations; law and economic development–common law versus civil law; a reformulation of voting theory; informational limits to public policy–ignorance and the jury theorem; democratic decision, stability of outcome, and agent power, with special reference to the European Union; the unequal treatment of voters under a single transferable vote–implications for electoral welfare with an application to the 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly elections; the pattern of democracy in the twentieth century–a study of the Polity index; democracy and low-income countries; a theory of the democratic fiscal constitution; when tax increases cause electoral damage–the case of local property taxes in Spain; and the mystery of Brazil. Pardo is Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Valencia. Schwartz is Professor of Economics at the Universidad CEU San Pablo. Index.