Introduction

The book’s introduction zooms in on three prominent developments that characterize the current era: democratic crisis, digital information revolution, and behavioral paradigm shift in social science and policy. Using an economic approach enriched by behavioral insights, the book seeks to contribute to democratic theory via behavioral political economy. Bounded rationality and rational irrationality will be considered in terms of their potential to trigger political irrationality capable of destabilizing liberal democracy. Paternalist response to irrationality will be viewed against the background of the struggle to contain digital disinformation and criticized as too reliant on presumably benevolent third parties and on the political channel of preference revelation. Non-paternalist responses to political irrationality—boosts, budges, quadratic voting, and open democracy—will be examined.