I fear you give politicians too much credit. The implication of this is that politicians are more rational on average than voters. I don’t see much evidence to support that theory. The facts seem more easily explained by politicians being on average no more rational than the population as a whole.
I suspect that for large numbers of politicians—probably the maqjority—the question of whether a proposition is true doesn’t really interest them all that much. They are more interested in whether a proposition will win or lose them votes. If they think it’ll lose votes, they won’t agree with it, and most lack the intellectual curiousity to care whether it is true.
More rational, no. More informed, yes, necessarily; they receive a constant supply of information relevant to their political decisions, largely from lobbyists and think tanks. It is biased information, but so is most of what the general public receives.
I fear you give politicians too much credit. The implication of this is that politicians are more rational on average than voters. I don’t see much evidence to support that theory. The facts seem more easily explained by politicians being on average no more rational than the population as a whole.
I suspect that for large numbers of politicians—probably the maqjority—the question of whether a proposition is true doesn’t really interest them all that much. They are more interested in whether a proposition will win or lose them votes. If they think it’ll lose votes, they won’t agree with it, and most lack the intellectual curiousity to care whether it is true.
More rational, no. More informed, yes, necessarily; they receive a constant supply of information relevant to their political decisions, largely from lobbyists and think tanks. It is biased information, but so is most of what the general public receives.