The Understanding Democracy Project
Special Note to Teachers of Public Choice
Special Note to Students of Public Choice Who Do Not Have Teachers
Understanding Democracy is a book in progress. I developed it in conjunction with a course in Public Choice at National Chung Hsing University in Taipei. The course is for students with varying backgrounds, although each has usually had at least one elementary course in economics. This is not a prerequisite. It may help students understand some of the graphs in the middle chapters of the manuscript. However, I have tried to design the book to be independent of the graphs.
The students who have taken this class have neither experience nor education with democracy. As a result, there is a lot of descriptive material. I expect the manuscript to be especially appealing to students and scholars in the newly developing democracies -- i.e., those that emerged after World War II.
Understanding Democracy is an ongoing project. I am continually revising the manuscript and I need your feedback. Please report unclear passages, send me questions about meaning, help identify typos or grammatical errors, recommend readings, report errors in my descriptions or history. Whatever. I will be grateful and I will make changes to the manuscript as soon as I can. (Oh, one point. I am pretty lousy at drawing graphs and have not tried to draw them to scale.)
In short, the manuscript is my gift to you. Under Chinese tradition, that leaves you with an obligation to give a gift to me. But don't send money, just suggestions for improvement. If you visit my little village, leave me a trace.
Note to Teachers of Public Choice
I have copies of the manuscript available in paperback form. If you would like to use this manuscript for classroom use, I will be happy to send you one copy and to authorize a limited number of additional copies to be made. You must send me a check to cover the cost of the original and postage (US$20) and tell me the number of copies you plan to make. Also, I would expect that you and your students would give me some feedback so that I can improve it. For further information, please contact me by Email.
Note to Students Who Have No Teachers
I teach from this text every semester. If you would like to virtually join the class, I will be happy to send you the class schedule. If you submit questions by Email, I will answer them. And I will send you examinations if we have them or assignments of papers, if I assign them. If you would like to get credit through your university, I suppose that your university would have to hire me as a part time teacher or link one of your teachers to me. You will have to ask the appropriate administrator. (The old system of education is changing fast and government-sponsored education is especially conservative; you might have better luck going through a private university.)
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Copyright © 2002 by James Patrick Gunning
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Copyright © 2002 by James Patrick Gunning
Gunning’s Address
J. Patrick Gunning
Professor of Economics/ College of Business
Feng Chia University
100 Wenhwa Rd, Taichung
Taiwan, R.O.C.
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Email: gunning@fcu.edu.tw