Information and Democracy: The Paradox of the Rational Ignoramus

Abstract

This paper gives in its introduction a brief compilation of the different theoretical currents of electoral behavior to emphasize the current of racial choice developed by Anthony Downs in 1957, which, over time, has been extensively worked on in the academy in order to analyze and interpret the behaviors that derive from the cost and benefit of the vote exercised by the citizen in the current representative democratic model. In this line, the article exposes both the characteristics of this current in relation to the concept of information and the consequences and challenges represented by the paradox of the rational ignorant in the context of Colombian democracy, in order to give, ultimately, a probable explanation to the phenomenon of democratic degradation.