On Monday, November 13, Universidad del Pacífico (UP) School of Economics and Finance presented the keynote lecture: "Why Pollsters Are Wrong but Lobbyists Always Win" by leading economist David Levine, renowned for his writings on theory of the games, imperfections in the financial markets, economic growth and intellectual property. During the event, the expert analyzed populism as a consequence of corruption that undermines democracy.
Thus, during the presentation the economist defined some concepts, such as democracy and lobbying, in order to understand their implications for the economic future. The lecture revealed why elections are won by great masses, but are corrupted by the conflict of interests of small power groups. In addition to finding effective solutions to combat this situation.
The economist analyzed voter turnout, the effectiveness of interest groups and the rise of populism. In this line, what is expressed by the economist agrees with what has been said by some experts who consider that the sociological elements of social pressure and social networks are crucial to understand the behavior of the political groups that participate in the electoral processes.
In that sense, some conclusions are that democracy is the worst form of government if it excludes all others and that populism is the (incorrect) response to the defects of democracy.