"We decide by elections, but do we elect who the voters really want? The answer, as we have learned over the past two centuries, is "not necessarily." That is a negative, frightening assertion about a principal tool of democracy! This negativism has been supported by two hundred years of published results showing how bad the situation can be. This expository, largely nontechnical book is the first to find positive results showing that the situation is not nearly as dire and negative as we have been led to believe. Instead there are surprisingly simple explanations for the negative assertions, and positive conclusions can be obtained."--Jacket.