Anthony Downs
| Anthony Downs | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 21, 1930 Evanston, Illinois |
| Nationality | United States |
| Institution | Brookings Institution |
| Field |
Public economics Political sciences |
| School or tradition |
Public Choice school |
| Alma mater |
Carleton College Stanford University |
| Influences |
Joseph Schumpeter Julius Margolis Kenneth J. Arrow |
| Influenced | Duncan Black |
Anthony Downs (/daʊnz/; born November 21, 1930) is an American economist specializing in public policy and public administration. He has been a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., since 1977.
Before 1977, Downs served for 18 years a member and then Chairman of Real Estate Research Corporation, a nationwide consultancy advising private and public decision-makers on real estate investment, housing policies, and urban affairs. He also served as a Senior Analyst at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the University of Chicago.
Downs received a B.A. in international relations and political theory from Carleton College in 1952, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 1956.
In An Economic Theory of Democracy (1957), an early work in rational choice theory, Downs posited the paradox of voting, which claimed that significant elements of political life could be explained in terms of voter self-interest. Downs showed that in democracies the aggregate distribution of political opinion forms a bell-shaped curve, with most voters possessing moderate opinions; he argued that this fact forces political parties in democracies to adopt centrist positions.
Downs has served as a consultant to many of the nation's largest corporations and public institutions, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the White House. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the National Commission on Urban Problems in 1967, and HUD Secretary Jack Kemp appointed him to the Advisory Commission on Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing in 1989. He is officer or trustee of General Growth Properties and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
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