Depression, War, and Cold War: Studies in Political Economy
preferences in majoritarian democracies. In Truth, Justice, and Democracy, Robert E. Goodin explains how true democracies contribute to both truth and justice. He then identifies the situations in which these tendencies disintegrate under conditions of corruption; such as conformity, non-conformity, division, and social clusters. He maintains, however, that even with corruption, democracy is the best form of social governance that we have applied thus far. In Error-dependant norms, Phillip Pettit identifies virtue and value mistaken norms, which lead large groups of individuals within society to inaccurately determine value basis's of other individuals and society and correspondingly alter their interests to conform. Hartmut Kliemt simplifies political decisions in The World is a Table. Economic philosophy stated flatly in terms of rows, columns, and cells. "Collective choice is simply a game or a set of rules under which individuals interact" (p.125). He plays the game first between himself and Brennan. They each make one decision to bring the collective to an action. Next, they let Giuseppe play, but he is not an individual decision-maker, he holds a large stick and reinforces his preferences (Pareto Efficiency) with brute force. If he is considerate of the preference of the other players; he allows them greater freedom in choosing, but still maintains ultimate control. Finally, it is stated that individuals do not consider social optimums in ordering personal preferences. In order to maintain social stability, decision makers must consider the values of the governed over the optimal efficiency of society at large. The concepts discussed in Beyond Conventional Economics are of great relevance to individuals and organizations that are involved in public choice and political decision making. Including voters whose individual benefits may have been compromised in the past through manipulations of socially constructed virtue and status quo assumptions. In the greater field of economics, some of the concepts found to irrationally influence peoples' decisions could be applied to various areas such as developmental and environmental economics.