Epistocracy and democratic epistemology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12940141 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John B Min (0000-0002-2314-7860, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 91-112 |
| Publication date | 2015-04-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Politics in Central Europe (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1801-3422 • E-ISSN: 2787-9038 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/pce-2015-0005 |
| OpenAlex | W2214204791 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 25 |
Epistocracy, the rule by the experts or educated, poses a significant challenge to authentic democratic rule. Epistocrats typically reason from the premise, “experts have knowledge of political truths” to the conclusion, “experts should have the authority to rule.” There may be powerful moral reasons for thinking that the inference is fallacious. Invoking a public reason standard of acceptability, David Estlund makes a powerful argument of this sort. I argue that Estlund’s argument against epistocracy overlooks democratic epistemology, which can and should be utilized to strengthen the epistemic merits of a democratic rule. I therefore examine whether democratic democracy’s epistemic value can rest on a formal epistemic model. The inadequacy of the formal epistemic model leads us to defend democratic epistemology differently. This will be defended in two ways. The first step will be to cast doubt into the epistemic merits of expert rule in two ways. First, experts sometimes do not have access to privileged information of citizens who bear the consequences of expert decisions. Second, experts themselves can be biased. I argue that democratic deliberation can offset those two disadvantages of expert rule. The second step will be to examine the epistemic values of inclusive democratic rule
Argument (complex analysis · Deliberation · Deliberative democracy · Democracy · Epistemology · Inference · Political science · Politics · Premise · Social epistemology · Sociology · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics
Foundations and Frontiers of Deliberative Governance
The Priority of Democracy
Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers
Beyond Fairness and Deliberation
The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice
Democratic Reason
An Epistemic Conception of Democracy
Designing Deliberative Democracy
A Theory of Justice
Democratic Authority
An Epistemic Defense of Democracy
Democracy and Social Choice
Democracy, Public Policy, and Lay Assessments of Scientific Testimony
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
Political Communication in Media Society
Epistemic Democracy
Liberalism, Deliberative Democracy, and “Reasons that All Can Accept”
Justifying deliberative democracy
Political Preference Formation
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2022 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |