Anthony Downs
Anthony Downs (born November 21, 1930 in Evanston , USA ) is an American political scientist and economist .
Life
He studied economics and political science at Carleton College in Northfield , Minnesota and received his PhD from Stanford University in 1956 . Afterwards he was u. a. Professor at the University of Chicago, Analyst at RAND Corporation and President of Real Estate Research Corporation . Since 1977 he has been a Senior Fellow for Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC His focus is on democracy research and demographic development.
His ideas about democracy
Downs imagines a democracy as competition between at least two parties for the exercise of state rule, which leads to periodically recurring elections in which each voter has one vote.
He sees democracy as a process, as a complex system of exchange in which individual actors (the voters) and collective actors (parties) communicate with each other and make their choices after maximizing the expected self-interest. Downs understands politics, analogous to the economy, as a market in which entrepreneurs (parties) offer goods (political programs) to buyers (citizens). This leads to the rationality axiom of the individual maximization of utility on the part of the "providers" (parties, government, politicians) who are out to maintain and gain power, and the "consumers" (citizens, voters). The political program only serves the parties as a means to an end. According to Downs, the rational voter draws up a cost-benefit balance before each election. The costs incurred, such as the procurement of information, the sifting through of party programs and finally the journey to the ballot box and the time lost with it, exceed the resulting potential benefits. Because, Downs continues, it is not certain whether the elected party will actually form the government. Downs describes this as the "paradox of choosing". In large democracies, Downs thought, voter turnout should be close to zero.
Two of Downs' main theses are the thesis of the maximization of votes by political providers (~ parties) and the self-interest axiom and principle of rationality on the part of the consumer (~ electorate), so that elections are a central “exchange place” of democracy. The modeling of political processes according to an act of exchange and on the basis of the calculus of rationality is the approach of the New Political Economy .
Its prerequisites for a democratic system of government are fully developed party competition and the filling of public offices on the basis of general elections. These should take place periodically.
His most important work is An Economic Theory of Democracy , published in New York City in 1957 .
Downs is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and, since 1977, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .
literature
- Dennis C. Mueller: Public Choice , 2003, Cambridge / New York / Melbourne.
- Daria W. Dylla: An economic analysis of the media democracy. The Rational Choice Approach and Vote Maximization , Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 2008.
- Volker Kunz: Rational Choice , 2004, Frankfurt a. M.
- Gebhard Kirchgässner : Homo Oeconomicus. The economic model of individual behavior and its application in economics and social sciences , 1991, JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck).
Web links
- Literature by and about Anthony Downs in the catalog of the German National Library
- http://www.brookings.edu/experts/downsa
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Downs, Anthony |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American political scientist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 21, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Evanston, USA |