Anthony Downs

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Anthony Downs

Anthony Downs is a noted scholar in public policy

Public policy

Public policy can be generally defined as the course of action or inaction taken by government entities with regard to a particular issue or set of issues....
and public administration

Public administration

Public administration can be broadly described as the development, implementation and study of branches of government public policy. The pursuit of the public good by enhancing civil society and social justice is the ultimate goal of the field....
, and since 1977 is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution

Brookings Institution

The Brookings Institution is a Non-profit organization public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and global economy and development....
in Washington D.C..

Downs has served as a consultant to many of the nation's largest corporations and public officials, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian architecture and has been the executive residence of every U.S....
. President Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States ....
appointed him to the National Commission on Urban Problems in 1967, and HUD Secretary Jack Kemp

Jack Kemp

Jack French Kemp, is an American politician and former professional American football player. In the U.S. presidential election, 1996, he was Republican Party presidential nominee Bob Dole running mate for Vice President of the United States....
appointed him to the Advisory Commission on Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing in 1989.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Anthony Downs'

Start a new discussion about 'Anthony Downs'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Anthony Downs is a noted scholar in public policy

Public policy

Public policy can be generally defined as the course of action or inaction taken by government entities with regard to a particular issue or set of issues....
and public administration

Public administration

Brookings Institution

White House

Lyndon B. Johnson

Jack Kemp

General Growth Properties

General Growth Properties is a publicly traded real estate investment trust in the United States. It is based in Chicago, Illinois at 110 North Wacker Drive, a historic building designed by architectural firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White....
and the NAACP Legal and Educational Defense Fund.

Downs received a B.A. from Carleton College

Carleton College

Carleton College is an independent Sectarianism, coeducational, Liberal arts colleges in the United States in Northfield, Minnesota, Minnesota, United States....
and later a Ph.D. in economics

Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
from Stanford University

Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private university research university located in Stanford, California, California, United States....
. He is the author or co-author of 24 books and over 500 articles. His most influential books are An Economic Theory of Democracy
An Economic Theory of Democracy

An Economic Theory of Democracy is a political science treatise written by Anthony Downs, published in 1957. The book set forth a Model with precise conditions under which economic theory could be applied to non-market political decision-making....
(1957) and Inside Bureaucracy (1967); widely translated, both are credited as major influences on the public choice school of political economy

Political economy

Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government. Political economy originated in moral philosophy....
. Later, Downs concerned himself with housing policy, writing about rent control

Rent control

Rent control refers to laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing. It functions as a price ceiling....
and housing affordability. The Revolution in Real Estate Finance (1985) predicted a long-term housing slowdown and decrease in housing prices. Neither prediction has yet been borne out. Most recently, Downs has involved himself with transportation economics. His book Stuck in Traffic (1992), which detailed the economic disadvantages of traffic congestion and proposed road pricing

Road pricing

Road pricing is an economic concept regarding the various direct charges applied for the use of roads. The road charges includes fuel taxes, vehicle licence, parking taxes, Toll road, and congestion pricing, including those which may vary by time of day, by the specific road, or by the specific vehicle, being used....
as the only effective means of alleviating it, was denounced by traffic engineers for its insistence on the futility of congestion relief measures. However, enough of his gloomy predictions about congestion were proven right that he successfully published a second edition, Still Stuck in Traffic (2004). Downs' recommendations are starting to see implementation, largely in the form of high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in the medians of crowded American freeway

Freeway

A freeway is a type of road designed for Road safety#Motorway high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections....
s, and through congestion pricing

Congestion pricing

Congestion pricing or congestion charges is a system of surcharging users of a transport network in periods of peak demand to reduce traffic congestion....
, already implemented in several cities around the world: Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country microstate located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It lies 137 kilometres north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands....
(see Area Licensing Scheme and Electronic Road Pricing

Electronic Road Pricing

File:ERPBugis.JPGThe Electronic Road Pricing scheme is an electronic toll collection scheme adopted in Singapore to manage traffic by road pricing, and as a usage-based taxation mechanism to complement the purchase-based Certificate of Entitlement system....
); London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
(see London congestion charge

London congestion charge

The London congestion charge is a fee for some motorists travelling within those parts of London designated as the Congestion Charge Zone . The main objectives of this charge are to reduce congestion, and to raise funds for investment in London's transport system....
); Stockholm

Stockholm

is the capital and largest city of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish Government of Sweden, the Parliament of Sweden, and the official residence of the Swedish Monarchy of Sweden....
(see Stockholm congestion tax

Stockholm congestion tax

The Stockholm congestion tax , also found referred to as the Stockholm congestion charge, is a congestion pricing system implemented as a tax which is levied on most vehicles entering and exiting central Stockholm, Sweden....
); Valletta

Valletta

Valletta is the Capital of Malta. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the Malta Island and has a population of 6,315.Valletta, the Citt? Umilissima, is essentially Baroque architecture in character, with elements of Mannerist_architecture#Mannerist architecture, Neoclassical architecture and Modern architecture in sele...
, Malta

Malta

Malta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed country European microstates microstate in the European Union....
; and Milan

Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....

Simon Fraser University's has a

Downsian Axis

In his seminal work An Economic Theory of Democracy
An Economic Theory of Democracy

An Economic Theory of Democracy is a political science treatise written by Anthony Downs, published in 1957. The book set forth a Model with precise conditions under which economic theory could be applied to non-market political decision-making....
(1957), Downs introduced a left-right axis

Political spectrum

A political spectrum is a way of modeling different politics positions by placing them upon one or more geometry coordinate axis symbolizing independent political dimensions....
to economic theory. He placed socialists and communists on the 'left', Christian democrats, social democrats and liberals in the 'center', and conservatives and fascists on the 'right', where 'communism' allows 0% private ownership, and 'fascism' 100% private ownership. He claimed that most voters have incomplete information when voting for political candidates in a democracy, and therefore will resort to economic issues of "how much government intervention in the economy there should be" and how parties will control this. Downs' book has since on become one of the most cited books in political science

Political science

Political science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior....
. His left-right axis model has been integrated into the median voter theory

Median voter theory

The median voter theory, also known as the median voter theorem and the median voter model , is a famous voting model positing that in a majority election, if voter policy preferences can be represented as a points along a single dimension, if all voters vote deterministically for the politician that commits to a policy p...
first articulated by Duncan Black

Duncan Black

Duncan Black was a scotland economist who laid the foundations of social choice theory. In particular we was responsible for unearthing the work of many early political scientists, including Charles Dodgson, and was responsible for the Black electoral system, a Condorcet method whereby, in the absence of a Condorcet winner , the Borda count...
.

Anthony Downs

Downsian Axis

See also

External links