He is the author of Hiring and Firing Public Officials: Rethinking the Purpose of Elections (Oxford University Press 2011). The book is the culmination of several years of research into the role that competitive elections play in a democracy. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the book argues that competitive elections, by most definitions, indicate democratic dysfunction because a competitive election is not comparable to a competitive market. Instead, tossing a coin is a poor method for making hiring and firing decisions, which is what elections actually are.