Un-enlightened Self-Interest
One of the myths of democracy is that voters know their interests and vote accordingly. At worst, voters may see those interests narrowly and choose to reward politicians whose policies are likewise short-sighted. And at best, voters could see beyond parochialism and chooser wiser policies. According to this model, a successful government was one that accurately reflected the desires of the electorate, and elections were a plebiscite on whether politicians had done this.
Whether framed narrowly or broadly, the underlying assumption is that voters are rational, and the problem with this assumption is that it is frequently wrong.
Voters do vote against their own self-interests, and as tempting as it is to think of them as confused it’s also somewhat misleading.
In What’s the Matter with Kansas?, Thomas Frank gives us part of the answer, and I strongly recommend reading it.
Another resource, which I hope will provide the basis for a discussion on this topic, is in the following article.
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=68225069-3048-5C12-00FA02842EFBC1AA
