The Democracy of the Future : Do Voters Want It?

Frey (Homo Oeconomicus 34(1):1–9, 2017) makes several proposals to reform and extend democracy. In this contribution, we first consider the desirability of these proposals from the point of view of a rational self-interested individual. We then conduct a questionnaire to quantify the actual support among voters. It turns out that many proposals lack support in both cases. We conclude that in making such proposals, one has to take into account not only pre-existing democratic institutions but also the support such proposals can expect from rational self-interested individuals.