Downs, Anthony

From fluctuations in the U.S. real estate market to the causes and consequences of traffic congestion and suburban sprawl to the workings of a two-party democratic political system, Anthony Downs's career as an economist has been grounded in the principles of choice, rationality, and market forces. His work has been important to a broad spectrum of audiences, including academics, public policy makers, and corporate decision makers. Rooted in economic assumptions, Downs has hypothesized how and why people and institutions make decisions about property, development, politics, and transportation and has pointed to the likely consequences of these decisions.

Downs, born in 1936, received a PhD in economics from Stanford University in 1956. The following year he published his dissertation, An Economic Theory of Democracy (1957) and, a decade later, he penned Inside Bureaucracy (1966). These books are widely cited by social scientists studying elections, political participation, political parties, and government. Their popularity has grown over time. Since 1980, they have been cited nearly 4,500 times in social science journals. An Economic Theory of Democracy, in particular, contributed to the understanding of how parties compete for voters in a two-party system by moving toward the center and why voters choose to vote or abstain in these elections. Political scientists have used these theories to explain changes in voter behavior when institutional changes shift the costs and benefits of participation. This work has led to a long-standing paradox as the costs of voting almost always outweigh the benefits for each individual voter, yet many individuals still vote in national, two-party, winner-take-all elections.

Downs's work has highlighted how micro-level decisions often lead to unintended and unfortunate macro outcomes. He has advocated implementation [Page 231]policies that would shift costs and benefits—such as changes to tax policy or the use of vouchers, quotas, or tolls—that in turn might produce more desirable social outcomes, such as the development of more affordable housing or an easing of racial tensions. At times, Downs views what is widely considered to be a problem, such as traffic congestion at peak hours, as an important consequence of local economic vibrancy rather than insufficient planning or infrastructure. His work on issue-attention cycles has provided insight into how the public perceives crisis and reacts to social and political issues over time.

Reviewers of Downs's work have sometimes noted that his policy prescriptions are very difficult or impractical to achieve given political realities. Yet, certain recommendations, such as the use of high-occupancy toll lanes in congested areas that have been implemented locally have resulted in outcomes consistent with Downs's predictions. Some of Downs's reviewers have found his underlying economic assumptions to be too abstract or too simple. Others note that Downs's predictions regarding the availability and pricing of housing and rents in the 1980s did not meet his expectations. Downs's advocacy for policies to break up disadvantaged urban communities in the late 1960s have been seen as both an important impetus to urban renewal efforts as well as a step that disempow-ered many in poor communities by diluting geographic concentrations.

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