TY - JOUR
T1 - The paradox of persisting opposition
AU - Goodin, Robert E.
PY - 2002/2
Y1 - 2002/2
N2 - If voters accord evidentiary value to one another's reports, revising their own views in the light of them as Bayesian rationality requires, then even relatively small electoral majorities ought to prove rationally compelling and opposition ought rationally to vanish. For democratic theory, that is a jarring result. While there are no resources for avoiding that result within the Bayesian model itself, there are various aspects of the political process lying outside that model which do serve to underwrite the rationality of persistent opposition to majority opinion.
AB - If voters accord evidentiary value to one another's reports, revising their own views in the light of them as Bayesian rationality requires, then even relatively small electoral majorities ought to prove rationally compelling and opposition ought rationally to vanish. For democratic theory, that is a jarring result. While there are no resources for avoiding that result within the Bayesian model itself, there are various aspects of the political process lying outside that model which do serve to underwrite the rationality of persistent opposition to majority opinion.
KW - Bayesian rationality
KW - consensus
KW - political opposition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85004435372&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1470594X02001001005
DO - 10.1177/1470594X02001001005
M3 - Article
SN - 1470-594X
VL - 1
SP - 109
EP - 146
JO - Politics, Philosophy and Economics
JF - Politics, Philosophy and Economics
IS - 1
ER -