The Ethics of Voting

While the book was widely well received as a new way of considering one's civic duty, there have been criticisms of his work. Chad Flanders' review of The Ethics of Voting in the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews praises the book as a whole but also states that Brennan seems to enjoy being contrarian a little too much. However Flanders admits that the contrarian nature of the writing serves to make the book more entertaining to read.^[3]

Ilya Somin, author of Democracy and Political Ignorance, wrote an ultimately positive review of the book for the Volokh Conspiracy but also said that Brennan never states which topics a voter should try to focus on in order to become an "Informed Voter". He also states that Brennan's ideas are not very different from John Stuart Mill’s analysis of the moral duties of voters in his work Considerations on Representative Government.^[4] Mill's argument, in section ten of the 1861 essay Considerations on Representative Government, is that an extra set of votes should be apportioned to the highly educated in order that they may ensure the safety and well being of the country.^[5]

Both Josh Rothman with The Boston Globe and Alan Haworth with The Philosophers' Magazine praised the book for its new take on democratic engagement.^[6][7]

• The Myth of the Rational Voter by Bryan Caplan
• Considerations on Representative Government John Stuart Mill
• The Problem of Political Authority by Michael Huemer