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I’ve got a new book review up today over at In These Times. It’s a review of Bryan Caplan’s The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies.. Here’s an excerpt:

It’s tempting to dismiss Caplan’s thesis out of hand, because it’s so self-consciously “provocative” and because he’s translating an old discredited anti-democratic argument into the jargon of econocentric elite-speak. But if you support democracy, you must confront the fact that voters can often be stunningly under-informed and that majoritarianism run amok can lead to persecution, hatred and injustice. Reading Caplan’s book, then, is both bracing and necessary because it forces the reader to stare into the abyss—an abyss the author seems only too happy to jump into.

UPDATE: Oops. Forgot to actually link to the review.