Sunday, September 21, 2014

An Economic Analysis of Democracy - Evaluation



Written by professor of American economics, Randall G. Holcombe in 1985, An Economic Analysis of Democracy gives students of economics and politics a view of the relationship between American democracy and the economy.  Professor Holcombe uses different theoretical models in order to analyze the current workings of a voter model system influenced by special interests in order to come up with insights in to forming an effective model for economic decision making based on majority rule.

The book is relatively recent enough to offer students a foundation of fairly recent economic theories that have been influential in the past several decades, as well as allowing for a student to reflect on how Holcombe’s theory might be revised in order to reflect more contemporary views and conditions. Most of all, this work would form a good grounding as to point the student in a direction for generating new ideas as to the inner connectivity of democratic principles and economic theory and policy making.

Including the index, the book is 270 pages and includes a ten page bibliography that offers readers further reading into the theories discussed in the book.  At the time of writing the book, Randall G. Holcombe had been teaching economics at Auburn University for almost ten years, in addition to having been a faculty member at Texas A&M University. He has been widely published in economic journals and has written around five other books on American economics.

An Economic Analysis of Democracy is part of the Political and Social Economy series out of Southern Illinois University Press. Other books in the series include:

  • ·         Economic Thought and Social Change by J. Ron Stanfield
  • ·         Origins of Economic Thought and Justice by Joseph J. Spengler
  • ·         The Political Economy of the Urban Ghetto by Daniel R. Fusfeld and Timothy Bates
  • ·         Toward a Social Economy by Howard R. B. Owen

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