Community invited to President’s Distinguished Speakers Series event featuring world-renowned scholar of elections and public opinion.
BRISTOL, R.I. – Voters are driven by partisan beliefs, they align with identity groups and they react to uncontrollable events such as drought or shark attacks. So their selection of leaders is much more nuanced than the ideal of citizens casting votes informed by an objective and thorough analysis of a politician’s positions on the issues. Christopher H. Achen, the renowned political scientist, will illuminate the realities of democratic politics and shatter the romantic notion of government by the will of the people during an appearance at Roger Williams University on Wednesday, Oct. 26.
Members of the campus community and the public are invited to spend an evening with Achen – co-author (with Larry Bartels) of Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (2016) and the Roger Williams Straus Professor of Social Sciences at Princeton University – as part of the President’s Distinguished Speakers Series at Roger Williams University. In his presentation – “Why Do Elections Produce Unresponsive Government?” – Achen will dispel the notion that elections are driven by ordinary citizens’ rational policy positions, while offering a provocative alternative view grounded in political parties and identity groups.
“Achen is a world-renowned political scientist and premier methodologist whose most recent work is a groundbreaking study of how citizens choose presidential candidates and how elections work,” says RWU Professor of Political Science Robert Eisinger. “Many citizens believe that government isn’t representing them, or responding to their needs and wants. If we can have a civil, thoughtful conversation about what is responsive government and how elections work, I think we elevate the political discourse. Let’s do this on October 26 with one of the foremost scholars studying elections and representation.”
