Scholarly Comments on Academic Economics

Rejoinder to Wittman: True Myths

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Abstract

WITTMAN HAS WRITTEN A CHARACTERISTICALLY ENGAGING response to my critique. While he emphasizes his continued disagreement with me, I am struck by the important concessions he makes. In particular, he has virtually abandoned the rational expectations assumption that drives his trademark results. This retreat has a high price, because his new watered-down standards of rationality are consistent with vast democratic inefficiency. Apparently, democratic failure is not a myth after all.

This article is a response to Reply to Caplan: On the Methodology of Testing for Voter Irrationality by Donald Wittman (EJW, April 2005).

Response to this article by Donald Wittman: Second Reply to Caplan: The Power and the Glory of the Median Voter (EJW, August 2005).