Three Theses on Schumpeter: Response to Mackie

Gerry Mackie , "Schumpeter’s Leadership Democracy," Political Theory 37 (2009): 2, 4, 13, 23.

Gerry Mackie , "Schumpeter’s Leadership Democracy," Political Theory 37 (2009): 44.

For an overview of the difficult question of how responsive leaders are to public opinion, see Paul Burstein, "The Impact of Public Opinion on Public Policy: A Review and Agenda" Political Research Quarterly 56 (2003): 29-40; for the claim that responsiveness is on the decline as politicians increasingly engage in "crafted talk," see Lawrence R. Jacobs and Robert Y. Shapiro, Politicians Don’t' Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).

V.O. Key, the originator of the theory, had a slightly darker view, claiming that it would be "a mischievous error to assume, because a candidate wins, that a majority of the electorate shares his views on public questions, approves his past actions, or has specific expectations about his future conduct" (The Responsible Electorate: Rationality in Presidential Voting, 1936-1960 [Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1966]). For a critique of retrospective voting, see Adam Przeworski, "Minimalist Conception of Democracy: A Defense," in Democracy’s Value, ed. Ian Shapiro and Casiano Hacker-Cordon (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 36-38.

For a recent discussion of standard methods of gauging ideology on a conservatism-liberalism scale, see Larry M. Bartels, Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), 254-57. For skepticism regarding the measurement and applicability of the liberal-conservative continuum-especially with regard to ordinary, unsophisticated citizens-see William Haltom, "Liberal-Conservative Continua: A Comparison of Measures," Western Political Quarterly 43 (June 1990): 387-401; Adam J. Schiffer, "I’m Not That Liberal: Explaining Conservative Democratic Alignment," Political Behavior 22 (December 2000): 293-310.

Gerry Mackie , Democracy Defended (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

Joseph Schumpeter , Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (New York: Harper, 1942), 261.

Philip Converse , "The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics," in Ideology and Discontent, ed. David Apter ( London: Free Press of Glencoe), 1964; John Zaller , The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion ( Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992).

Anthony Downs, a pioneer of the economic model of democracy, credits Schumpeter’s influence: "Schumpeter’s profound analysis of democracy forms the inspiration and foundation of our whole thesis, and our debt and gratitude to him are great indeed" (An Economic Theory of Democracy [New York: Harper, 1967], 29fn11). This credit is inappropriate because, as I am explaining here, Schumpeter’s account undercuts the definition of the People as consumers with exogenous demands.

Gerry Mackie , "Schumpeter’s Leadership Democracy," Political Theory 37 (2009): 149.

Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 242.

Ibid., 295.

See, e.g., Hilary Putnam , The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy and Other Essays (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002).

Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy, 235, 249, 264-65, 269.

Gerry Mackie , "Schumpeter’s Leadership Democracy," Political Theory 37 (2009): 129.

Gerry Mackie , "Schumpeter’s Leadership Democracy," Political Theory 37 (2009): 145.