Introduction

Abstract

Democratic government by definition is rule “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” and as such, it requires that citizens have electoral control of their representatives. This requires that citizens vote and acquire political information. Yet Downs (1957) shows that it is not in the rational, self-interest of citizens to vote. The reason political participation in a democracy is problematic is that each individual has only a very low probability of affecting the outcome of an election and, therefore, of affecting the policies adopted by the government.