Economist Explained Politics and Traffic Jams
wsj.comAnthony Downs spent most of his career as an economist studying real-estate markets but made a bigger mark in two areas not usually associated with economics: examining the behavior of American voters and explaining why traffic jams couldn’t be eliminated in major cities.
Mr. Downs—who shunned the honorific Dr. even though he had a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University—was best known for his doctoral thesis, published in 1957 as a book, “An Economic Theory of Democracy.” Applying economic methods to political science, he posited that American voters and politicians, no matter how lazy or lunatic they might appear at times, behave rationally. His model “became the standard way of structuring thinking about party competition,” said Terry
Read more on wsj.com
