Democracy and Political Ignorance

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Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter

Author	Ilya Somin
Language	English
Subject	Political philosophy, Government, Political ignorance
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Stanford University Press
Publication date	- 2013 (original edition) - 2016 (revised and expanded edition)

Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government Is Smarter is a 2013 book from Stanford University Press by George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin.^[1][2][3] Somin argues that people are ignorant and irrational about politics and that this creates problems for democracy. He further claims that this consideration argues in favor of smaller and more decentralized government.

A revised and expanded edition of the book was published in 2016. It includes new material on a variety of issues, including discussions of the "Big Sort" and its implications for "voting with your feet," the connection between political ignorance and the disproportionate political influence of the wealthy, new proposals for increasing political knowledge, and up-to-date survey data on political ignorance from recent elections.^[4] The book has also been published in Italian and Japanese translations.^[5][6]