THE DECAY OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY

Liberal democracy is decaying because its values have been carried to excess or are obsolete for effectively addressing society's contemporary challenges. The loss of American military, technological, and economic hegemony—through the rise of competitors and increased interdependence—has threatened the nation's sense of ideological superiority, social coherence, and purpose. The prospects for a democratic renewal will require first, an enabling crisis that calls into question the existing social order, particularly capitalism, and the liberal values on which it is legitimated. Second, a broad-based popular movement would have to emerge that supports a redirection in the value structure, social relationships, and the public policy agenda. The essay concludes with concrete recommendations for reforming political institutions and new policies that would move us along such a path.     

Spatial elections with endorsements and uninformed voters: Some laboratory experiments

This paper presents a laboratory experiment designed to examine voting behavior, within a spatial election framework, when subjects are only endowed with endorsement information. In the experiment, subjects are assigned ideal points on a single-issue dimension. With the aid of an endorsement, their task is to vote for the candidate whose position is closer to them. The results show that under these conditions, subjects are in fact playing a lottery, where the odds of being correct is a function of spatial location. The study points out that researchers should be aware of an “information bias” in models that use this particular information source.