Democracy Despite Itself: Why a System That Shouldn’t Work at All Works So Well by Danny Oppenheimer and Mike Edwards

On March 10, 2012, in Book Reviews, Nonfiction, Political, by Editor

Oppenheimer and Edwards argue that democracy works because regular elections, no matter how flawed, produce a variety of unintuitive, positive consequences. Mass participation in contested elections creates psychological pressure for voters to be better citizens and for politicians to be better leaders; alternating power regularly between different factions helps avoid instability; citizens are sometimes able to overcome their ignorance and make informed choices; and voters do have the power to punish politicians for excessively bad behavior.

Change Made by Thomas Jefferson in Original Declaration of Independence Draft

On July 4, 2010, in Political Comments, by Editor

Jefferson originally had written the phrase “our fellow subjects.” But he apparently changed his mind. Heavily scrawled over the word “subjects” was an alternative, the word “citizens.”