Democracy and Political Ignorance

Somin marshals the survey evidence that voters know very little about the government they are choosing, argues that this ignorance is rational rather than a failure of civics — one vote does not repay the cost of becoming informed — and concludes that the remedy is to decide fewer things at the centre. His alternative is decentralization and what he calls foot voting: choice among jurisdictions, where the decision to move actually turns on information the chooser has an incentive to acquire.

Why it’s on the list: Paired with Buchanan in Public Choice: the school’s analysis of how political actors actually behave, applied to the voter rather than to the official.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Public Choice Theory. Shared on X on March 9, 2026 and saved to Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note. The full 211-entry transcription, with the four parts and sixteen sub-sections, is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this card came from.
• Democracy — the institution whose informational assumptions the book attacks.
• Government — the size question the argument is aimed at.
• Incentives — rational ignorance as an incentive result rather than a character flaw.