election demographics

[Brad DeLong]

>At 04:53 PM 11/6/00 -0800, you wrote:
>>>Do you really believe half of all the citizens of this country are "clueless
>>>bozos"?
>>>That's more than a little arrogant,don't you think?
>>>      John Thornton
>>
>>I tried to hedge it a little. But I do think that if you don't vote,
>>you are making a substantial mistake?
>>
>>Don't you?
>>
>
>
>Yes. I just got through teaching an Intro to Economics class. I told them
>that the majority of economists work with models of human beings that say
>they will not vote. I told them to make sure they did. (-;

But, as Alberto Alesina once said, in modern economics-of-politics 
you are *forbidden* to ask why people vote--even though it has only 
an infinitesimal chance of affecting their lives and spends time that 
could be spent doing other things.

Thus, Alberto says, if you want to get published in the APSR, you 
have to (a) assume people have a direct utility taste for voting, yet 
(b) assume also that when they do vote, they think "gosh darn it! I 
know that it's silly for me to be here, but now that I'm here I'll 
vote my narrowly-defined individualistic self interest!"

You're not allowed to wonder whether the taste for voting might also 
be a taste for voting for your perception of the general will...

Brad DeLong