ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses key problems with the rational voter model and discusses voting behavior theories that modify the rational choice model in order to make it more realistic. In the real world, even the most informed voters regularly make choices that do not appear to maximize expected utility. Voters lack stable preferences and frequently misperceive the facts and issues of the day; they mostly cannot articulate their own positions let alone the candidates’ positions. The American Voter argued that political knowledge is deeply limited. So what do constrained rational voters actually do? To answer this question, we check in with Anne D., our ideal-type constrained rational voter who tends to vote retrospectively (i.e., with her pocketbook), and with Teresa C., our ideal-type voter we call “fast and frugal,” and discuss how they arrived at their decision in 2016.
