It Feels Like Weíre Thinking: The Rationalizing Voter and Electoral Democracy
Christopher H. Achen Department of Politics and Center for the Study of Democratic Politics Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 achen at princeton.edu
Larry M. Bartels Department of Politics and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International A§airs Center for the Study of Democratic Politics Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 bartels at princeton.edu
Abstract
The familiar image of rational electoral choice has voters weighing the com- peting candidatesí strengths and weaknesses, calculating comparative dis- tances in issue space, and assessing the presidentís management of foreign a§airs and the national economy. Indeed, once or twice in a lifetime, a national or personal crisis does induce political thought. But most of the time, the voters adopt issue positions, adjust their candidate perceptions, and invent facts to rationalize decisions they have already made. The im- plications of this distinctionó between genuine thinking and its dayñtoñday counterfeitó strike at the roots of both positive and normative theories of electoral democracy.