Perhaps the main flaw of democratic governments is that periodical elections induce a short time horizon and make it politically risky for governments to undertake projects that take a long time to mature. Measures for climate change abatement are the paradigmatic case. Even worse, in many modern governments, the actual and expected turnover of ministers is so high that their time horizon is truncated over and above the normal shortening effect produced by the electoral cycle. This path-breaking volume is the first to address this issue in its full depth and complexity. Professor Jon Elster, Columbia University sakriti opis