Kevin Carson wrote: > > Voter attitudes generally reflect a conventional wisdom that is shaped by > the corporate media and statist educational system. A whole series of > buzzwords comes to mind--ideological hegemony, the sociology of knowledge, > reproduction of human capital--but they all boil down to the fact that a > fairly centralized cultural apparatus is effective at creating the kinds of > public opinion the existing system of power needs to survive.
Once again, why do you focus on the "centralized cultural apparatus"? Would decentralizing things really do much to change people's political views? There used to be many more newspapers in the 1930s, for example. But then you just had thousands of newspapers arguing for intervention instead of ten or twenty. What's the difference? > Concerning the real issues involved in our politics, and the contending > groups that are actually represented in the state's decision-making, I'd say > Thomas Ferguson and William Domhoff were closer to the mark than the > "interest group pluralists" are. I'd say it's closest to the mark to say that most voters genuinely but stupidly want government to do what it actually does. The interest groups just take care of the details. > >From: Fred Foldvary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Subject: Re: Republican Reversal > >Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 17:31:43 -0700 (PDT) > > > > > These are all good comments on the Republican reversal. Thus, I take it > > > that the list agrees that democracy works pretty well in reflecting the > > > wishes of the voters. > > > Alex > > > >I don't agree. What about the large literature on voter ignorance and rent > >seeking? Does the typical American agree, for example, that it is good > >policy to spend billions on farm subsidies, or are they just ignorant and > >apathetic? > > > >Fred Foldvary > > > >===== > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > >__________________________________________________ > >Do You Yahoo!? > >Yahoo! Autos - Get free new car price quotes > >http://autos.yahoo.com > > _________________________________________________________________ > MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: > http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx -- Prof. Bryan Caplan Department of Economics George Mason University http://www.bcaplan.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] "He wrote a letter, but did not post it because he felt that no one would have understood what he wanted to say, and besides it was not necessary that anyone but himself should understand it." Leo Tolstoy, *The Cossacks*
