POLITICAL THEORY AND PUBLIC CHOICE
The Selected Essays of Anthony Downs, Volume One
Anthony Downs
Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. (1998)

"American public attention rarely remains sharply focused upon any one domestic issue for very long - even if it involves a continuing problem of crucial importance to society. Instead, a systematic 'issue-attention cycle' seems strongly to influence public attitudes and behavior concerning most key domestic problems. Each of these problems suddenly leaps into prominence, remains there for a short time, and then - though still largely unresolved - gradually fades from the center of public attention. A study of the way this cycle operates provides insights into whether public attention is likely to remain sufficiently focused upon any given issue to generate enough political pressure to cause effective change.

The shaping of American attitudes toward improving the quality of our environment provides both an example and a potential test of this 'issue-attention cycle.' In the past few years, there has been a remarkably widespread upsurge of interest in the quality of our environment. This change in public attitudes has been much faster than any changes in the environment itself. What has caused this shift in public attention? Why did this issue suddenly assume so high a priority among our domestic concerns? And how long will the American public sustain high-intensity interest in ecological matters? I believe that answers to these questions can be derived from analyzing the 'issue-attention cycle.'" Up and Down With Ecology: The 'Issue-Attention Cycle' originally appeared in The Public Interest, Volume 28 (Summer 1972), pp. 38-50. Republished in Anthony Downs, Political Theory and Public Choice (1998), pp. 100-112.

BOOK DESCRIPTION
PUBLISHER
This volume, together with a new original introduction, contains the most significant of Anthony Downs’s essays written over the past four decades on politics and political theory. The articles address issues such as democracy, public choice theory, rational political decision making and political policy. As such this will be an ideal companion to his famous book An Economic Theory of Democracy.

In this collection, Anthony Downs shows how a rational analyst can apply common sense and the lessons of practical experience to the most fundamental and difficult aspects of the political theory of democracy. Written in easily accessible language, Downs’ analysis of political behaviour in a democracy and specifically the public choice view is applied to many aspects of democratic politics including cycles of political attention to specific issues, and the long term evolution of democracy.

This book will prove invaluable to academics and students of politics, democracy, and public choice theory. (from Edward Elgar Publishing website)

BOOK REVIEWS
Michael Keating, University of Western Ontario, Canada
"Anthony Downs is one of the outstanding thinkers of our times. In an age and country where the title of intellectual has become almost a term of abuse, he has demonstrated the power of ideas in the world of practical affairs. His work focuses on problems, and cuts through disciplinary boundaries. It is informed by a concern to improve the human condition, and a commitment to rigorous analysis of how this can be achieved. The papers in this collection [Volumes One and Two], from his classic work on the economic theory of democracy, to his writings on urban policy and property markets, provide a summary of forty years of a career that has decisively shaped the way in which we think about public affairs."

Peter Jackson, University of Leicester, UK
"Anthony Downs is one of the founding fathers of modern public choice theory. His seminal contributions, some of which are reprinted in these volumes [Volumes One and Two], remain an important source of inspiration for today’s scholars. Reading the articles reprinted in these two books will be a highly rewarding experience, readers will be reminded of the fundamental issues in the political-economic analysis of democracy and the powerful insights which are obtained from an application of this approach to policy problems. Downs is a master analyst and practitioner and a powerful communicator. Those coming fresh to the subject will be greatly stimulated by his writings."