Chapter dzǻ: American Democracy Diagnosed ȂȅȄour ignorance as voters and inattentiveness as citizens, we have a politics
that is, in the end, appropriate to its time and place.Ļis rather lame conclusion overlooks the insights of Anthony Downs
inAn Economic Ļeory of Democracy(ȀȈȄȆ): It is perfectly rational for the
individual citizen ordinarily to remain ignorant of political issues and give
them only superficial attention. Any reform effort that hopes to succeed
must take this circumstance to heart.
Ehrenhalt neither fully explains our political malady nor gives advice
on how to cure it. Yet even unaccompanied by an etiology and a prescrip-
tion, his diagnosis is well worth having. Although Ehrenhalt is not push-
ing any particular ideological line, his analysis tempts me to offer some
libertarian embroidery.
Sheer eloquence, I conjecture, including a knack for devising memo-
rable slogans, succeeds better in the political arena than competent con-
cern for the sizes or importance of various supposed problems and of the
benefits and costs of remedies offered. Knowing economics can hobble
the honest politician, while the pangs of conscience spare the economic
ignoramus as he prevails with promises and eloquence. Concern for the
long run is a similar handicap, since looking good at election time is what
counts.
Ļese are among the reasons why the qualities and skills of a successful
political campaigner do not coincide with those of a good government
executive or legislator (as Ehrenhalt noted in Concord, CA., p.ȄȄ). “Ļe
ability to canvass for votes in Iowa or New Hampshire does not have much
to do with the qualities that make a successful president. But it has come
to be a virtual prerequisite for anyone who wants the job” (p.ȁǿȅ).
Ehrenhalt further helps us understand why the outcome of the polit-
ical process does not necessarily represent the will of the people. It is a
fallacy to say (as George Will and Herbert Stein did) that people must
be pretty well satisfied with government as a whole; otherwise they would
vote to change it. Ļe voters do not have an opportunity to express them-
selves, and express themselves knowledgeably, on the character of govern-
ment and its overall scale of activity. Ļe political process operates with
a bias toward bigness. Furthermore, voters are probably trapped in a kind
of prisoners’ dilemma (as suggested in remarks about Congress above).
Ehrenhalt’s readers will see further reasons for skepticism about de-
mocracy as a good in its own right. Democracy is a particular politi-
cal method, a method of choosing, replacing, and influencing our rulers.