The Myth of the Rational Voter
- Paperback2011, ISBN: 9780691019086
Hardcover
Caplan argues that voters continually elect politicians who either share their biases or else pretend to, resulting in bad policies winning again and again by popular demand. Calling into… More...
Caplan argues that voters continually elect politicians who either share their biases or else pretend to, resulting in bad policies winning again and again by popular demand. Calling into question our most basic assumptions about American politics, Caplan contends that democracy fails precisely because it does what voters want. Through an analysis of American's voting behavior and opinions on a range of economic issues, he makes the case that noneconomists suffer from four prevailing biases: they underestimate the wisdom of the market mechanism, distrust foreigners, undervalue the benefits of conserving labor, and pessimistically believe the economy is going from bad to worse. Caplan lays out several ways to make democratic government work better|Books|https://wordery.com/jackets/9b64a433/the-myth-of-the-rational-voter-bryan-caplan-9780691138732.jpg|9780691138732|The Myth of the Rational Voter : Paperback : Princeton University Press : 9780691138732 : 24 Aug 2008 : The greatest obstacle to sound economic policy is not entrenched special interests or rampant lobbying, but the popular misconceptions, irrational ...|new|1|1|2|22|0|GBP|Bryan Caplan|Princeton University Press|24 Aug 2008|Elections & referenda 9780691138480|The European Economy since 1945|26.99|https://wordery.com/the-european-economy-since-1945-barry-eichengreen-9780691138480|In 1945, many Europeans still heated with coal, cooled their food with ice, and lacked indoor plumbing. Today, things could hardly be more different. Over the second half of the twentieth century, the average European's buying power tripled, while working hours fell by a third. The European Economy since 1945 is a broad, accessible, forthright account of the extraordinary development of Europe's economy since the end of World War II. Barry Eichengreen argues that the continent's history has been critical to its economic performance, and that it will continue to be so going forward. Challenging standard views that basic economic forces were behind postwar Europe's success, Eichengreen shows how Western Europe in particular inherited a set of institutions singularly well suited to the economic circumstances that reigned for almost three decades. Economic growth was facilitated by solidarity-centered trade unions, cohesive employers' associations, and growth-minded governments--all legacies of Europe's earlier history. For example, these institutions worked together to mobilize savings, finance investment, and stabilize wages. However, this inheritance of economic and social institutions that was the solution until around 1973--when Europe had to switch from growth based on brute-force investment and the acquisition of known technologies to growth based on increased efficiency and innovation--then became the problem. Thus, the key questions for the future are whether Europe and its constituent nations can now adapt their institutions to the needs of a globalized knowledge economy, and whether in doing so, the continent's distinctive history will be an obstacle or an asset.|Books|https://wordery.com/jackets/500f4e1c/the-european-economy-since-1945-barry-eichengreen-9780691138480.jpg|9780691138480|The European Economy since 1945 : Paperback : Princeton University Press : 9780691138480 : 21 Jul 2008 : Over the second half of the twentieth century, the average European's buying power tripled, while working hours fell by a third. This work offers ...|new|1|1|1|30|0|GBP|Barry Eichengreen|Princeton University Press|21 Jul 2008|Economic history 9780691139265|Birds of East Asia|32.99|https://wordery.com/birds-of-east-asia-mark-brazil-9780691139265|With 234 superb color plates, and more than 950 color maps, Birds of East Asia makes it easy to identify all of the region's species. The first single-volume field guide for eastern Asia, the book covers major islands including Japan and Taiwan, as well as the Asian continent from Kamchatka to the Korean Peninsula. The region's major bird families are presented and distinct species are noted, from the well-known Steller's Sea Eagle--the world's largest eagle--to those less familiar to Western ornithologists, such as the Scaly-sided Merganser, Oriental Stork, and Mugimaki Flycatcher. The maps provide useful information about the seasonal migratory patterns of all bird varieties. Birds of East Asia is a must-have resource for birdwatchers, ecotourists, and wildlife enthusiasts everywhere. A handy single-volume guide to all the bird species of East Asia, including China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia 234 beautiful color plates More than 950 color maps covering seasonal habitats and migration routes|Books|https://wordery.com/jackets/2253fb35/birds-of-east-asia-mark-brazil-9780691139265.jpg|9780691139265|Birds of East Asia : Paperback : Princeton University Press : 9780691139265 : 15 Feb 2009 : Featuring 234 color plates, and more than 950 color maps, this book helps identify East Asia's bird species. It covers major islands including Japan and Taiwan ...|new|1|1|7|34|0|GBP|Mark Brazil|Princeton University Press|15 Feb 2009|Wildlife: birds & birdwatching 9780691139302|Black|25.46|https://wordery.com/black-michel-pastoureau-9780691139302|In the beginning was black, Michael Pastoureau tells us. The archetypal color of darkness and death, black was associated in the early Christian period with hell and the devil but also with monastic virtue. In the medieval era, black became the habit of courtiers and a hallmark of royal luxury. Black took on new meanings for early modern Europeans as they began to print words and images in black and white, and to absorb Isaac Newton's announcement that black was no color after all. During the romantic period, black was melancholy's friend, while in the twentieth century black (and white) came to dominate art, print, photography, and film, and was finally restored to the status of a true color. For Pastoureau, the history of any color must be a social history first because it is societies that give colors everything from their changing names to their changing meanings - and black is exemplary in this regard. In dyes, fabrics, and clothing, and in painting and other art works, black has always been a forceful - and ambivalent - shaper of social, symbolic, and ideological meaning in European societies.|Books|https://wordery.com/jackets/13a754d0/black-michel-pastoureau-9780691139302.jpg|9780691139302|Black : Hardback : Princeton University Press : 9780691139302 : 16 Nov 2008 : Black, favorite color of priests and penitents, artists and ascetics, fashion designers and fascists, has always stood for powerfully opposed ideas: authority and humility a ...|new|1|1|1|28|0|GBP|Michel Pastoureau|Princeton University Press|16 Nov 2008|Theory of art 9780691139395|The Social Amoebae|19.77|https://wordery.com/the-social-amoebae-john-tyler-bonner-9780691139395|Noted biologist and author John Tyler Bonner has experimented with cellular slime molds for more than sixty years, and he has done more than anyone else to raise these peculiar collections of amoebae from a minor biological curiosity to a major model organism--one that is widely studied for clues to the development and evolution of all living things. Now, five decades after he published his first pioneering book on cellular slime molds, Bonner steps back from the proliferating and increasingly specialized knowledge about the organism to provide a broad, nontechnical picture of its whole biology, including its evolution, sociobiology, ecology, behavior, and development. The Social Amoebae draws the big lessons from decades of research, and shows how slime molds fit into and illuminate biology as a whole. Slime molds are very different from other organisms; they feed as individual amoebae before coming together to form a multicellular organism that has a remarkable ability to move and orient itself in its environment. Furthermore, these social amoebae display a sophisticated division of labor; within each organism, some cells form the stalk and others become the spores that will seed the next generation. In The Social Amoebae, Bonner examines all these parts together, giving a balanced, concise, and clear overview of slime mold biology, from molecules to cells to multicells, as he advances some unconventional and unexpected insights.|Books|https://wordery.com/jackets/947a08cf/the-social-amoebae-john-tyler-bonner-9780691139395.jpg|9780691139395|The Social Amoebae : Hardback : Princeton University Press : 9780691139395 : 18 Jan 2009 : Slime molds are very different from other organisms; they feed as individual amoebae before coming together to form a multicellular organism that has a remarkab ...|new|1|1|1|25|0|GBP|John Tyler Bonner|Princeton University Press|18 Jan 2009|Biology, life sciences books 9780691138152|The Age of Anxiety|17.28|https://wordery.com/the-age-of-anxiety-w-h-auden-9780691138152|When it was first published in 1947, The Age of Anxiety--W. H. Auden's last, longest, and most ambitious book-length poem--immediately struck a powerful chord, capturing the imagination of the cultural moment that it diagnosed and named. Beginning as a conversation among four strangers in a barroom on New York's Third Avenue, Auden's analysis of Western culture during the Second World War won the Pulitzer Prize and inspired a symphony by Leonard Bernstein as well as a ballet by Jerome Robbins. Yet reviews of the poem were sharply divided, and today, despite its continuing fame, it is unjustly neglected by readers. This volume--the first annotated, critical edition of the poem--introduces this important work to a new generation of readers by putting it in historical and biographical context and elucidating its difficulties. Alan Jacobs's introduction and thorough annotations help today's readers understand and appreciate the full richness of a poem that contains some of Auden's most powerful and beautiful verse, and that still deserves a central place in the canon of twentieth-century poetry.|Books|https://wordery.com/jackets/f2883528/the-age-of-anxiety-w-h-auden-9780691138152.jpg|9780691138152|The Age of Anxiety : Hardback : Princeton University Press : 9780691138152 : 27 Feb 2011 : Provides an analysis of Western culture during the Second World War that won the Pulitzer Prize and inspired a symphony by Leonard Bernstein as well as a ballet ...|new|1|1|1|17.99|0|GBP|W. H. Auden|Princeton University Press|27 Feb 2011|Poetry by individual poets 9780691018836|Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth|46.79|https://wordery.com/spiritual-body-and-celestial-earth-henry-corbin-9780691018836|An analysis of interrelated themes in Iranian religion, including the angelology of Mazdaism and Islamic Shi'ite concepts of spirit-body identity.|Books|https://wordery.com/jackets/3f57c2c3/spiritual-body-and-celestial-earth-henry-corbin-9780691018836.jpg|9780691018836|Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth : Paperback : Princeton University Press : 9780691018836 : 21 Aug 1989 : Presnts an analysis of interrelated themes in Iranian religion, including the angelology of Mazdaism and Islamic Shi'ite concepts of spirit-bod ...|new|1|1|140|19.95|0|GBP|Henry Corbin|Princeton University Press|21 Aug 1989|Islam books 9780691019086|Yannis Ritsos|37.24|https://wordery.com/yannis-ritsos-yannis-ritsos-9780691019086|The celebrated modern Greek poet Yannis Ritsos follows such distinguished predecessors as C. P. Cavafy and George Seferis in a dramatic and symbolic expression of a tragic sense of life. The shorter poems gathered in this volume present what Ritsos calls simple things" that turn out not to be simple at all. Here we find a world of subtle nuances, in which everyday events hide much that is threatening, oppressive, and spiritually vacuous--but the poems also provide lyrical and idyllic interludes, along with cunning re-creations of Greek mythology and history. This collection of Ritsos's work--perhaps most of all those poems written while he was in forced exile under the dictatorship of the Colonels--testifies to his just place among the major European poets of this century. The distinguished translator of modern Greek poetry Edmund Keeley has chosen for this anthology selections from seven of Ritsos's volumes of shorter poems written between 1946 and 1975. Two of these volumes are represented here in English versions for the first time, two others have been translated only sporadically, and the remaining three were first published in a bilingual edition now out of print (Ritsos in Parentheses). The collection thus covers thirty years of a poetic career that is the most prolific, and among the most honored, in Greece's modern history. Books, [PU: Princeton University Press]<
