Voting Like a Human

Abstract

The work of Vernon Smith and his collaborators that has come to be associated with the label “Humanomics” offers both substantive and methodological amendments to economic theory. On the substantive level, Humanomics offers a theory human agency that is distinct from both neoclassical and behavioral economics. On the methodological level, Humanomics cautions against blindly importing the assumptions of theorists into the minds of individuals whose behavior we seek to explain. We apply both of these amendments to the public choice theory of voting. Substantively, we argue that expressive voting is best understood as what political scientists call identity voting. Most voters do not have underlying policy preferences that politicians cater too. Rather, they have social identities that are constituted by synchronized moral sentiments. We synthesize empirical evidence showing that identity trumps issues, and argue that the public choice attachment to issue voting illustrates some of the methodological pitfalls that Smith identifies.

Keywords: expressive voting, identity voting, public choice