Well at least the electorate is responsive. In the philippines except for the presidensy you can buy your way into any elected seat! And because the president cannot go for re-election and there really is no party system , we have a personality system of government, this means we are screwed!<\/p>\n
On its own terms, though this can sometimes produce unfair outcomes (like Jimmy Carter getting booted for problems that were far beyond his capacity to control) I think swing voters\u2019 habit of punishing incumbents for poor performance is an okay satisficing strategy. It\u2019s part of the reason why democracy manages to work despite massive voter ignorance. The electorate may be composed of people who don\u2019t understand the issues or where the candidates stand on them, but the people running the government have an incentive to try to implement policies that work out okay in order to avoid \u201cthrow the bums out\u201d sentiment. The trouble is that Bartels\u2019 study of American elections, at least, suggests massive myopia on the part of voters. Economic performance in an election year has a big impact on election outcomes, but economic performance in other years doesn\u2019t get you anywhere. If that carries over to the UK (and, indeed, it seems to) that means that Labour won\u2019t get any credit from voters for the fact that current problems were preceded by a long and impressive string of growth. And by the same token, voters don\u2019t understand comparative issues \u2014 the fact that your country is doing better than most other countries amidst a global downturn won\u2019t get you any credit.
\nMatthew Yglesias \u00bb Democracy\u2019s Myopia Problem<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well at least the electorate is responsive. In the philippines except for the presidensy you can buy your way into any elected seat! And because the president cannot go for re-election and there really is no party system , we have a personality system of government, this means we are screwed! On its own terms, … <\/p>\n