Democracy and Reforms
User Contributions (0) and Related Materials (4)
Ask a Question
What are these "Good Reforms"? you don't define what you mean by a "good" reform versus a "bad" reform. Or where you are just comparing Economic Outcomes and Democracy.
Similarly what consistutes "Good Policy"? you don't really define any of these notions in these videos. or even admit that this is highly questionable and debatable.
And then at the end you admit that Democracy actually has little influence in the actual policies adopted! If that's the case then what were you talking about before with the Good reforms?
I think that by "Good Policy" the lesson might refer to policies that a majority of economists find to be good. Of course, economists disagree on a number of issues but they agree on a significant number of politically relevant ones (of course, they could be wrong on these, but the likelihood of them being wrong might be smaller than the likelyhood of them being right). The issue of "what is good policy" is also raised in Bryan Caplan's "The Myth of the Rational Voter". He puts it like this: "Democracies frequently adopt and maintain policies harmful for most people. Protectionism is a classic example. Economists across the political spectrum have pointed out its folly for centuries, but almost every democracy restricts imports."
http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa594.pdf
The "good reforms" are discussed first in the context of the Giuliano et al paper (first link in the Related Materials).