How Smart is Democracy? You Can't Answer that Question a Priori

Bibliographic Data

ID6251422
AuthorsJason Brennan (0000-0001-5636-782X, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume26
Issue1-2
Pages33-58
Publication date2014-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-3811 • E-ISSN: 1933-8007
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08913811.2014.907040
OpenAlexW2014873497
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited26

Hélène Landemore claims that under certain conditions, democracies with universal suffrage will tend to make smarter and better decisions than epistocracies, even though most citizens in modern democracies are extremely ignorant about politics. However, there is ample empirical evidence that citizens make systematic errors. If so, it is fatal to Landemore's defense of democracy, which, if it works at all, applies only to highly idealized situations that are unlikely to occur in the real world. Critics of democracy will find little in Landemore's defense of democracy to make them change their minds

A priori and a posteriori · Democracy · Economics · Empirical evidence · Epistemology · Law and economics · Liberal democracy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Representative democracy · Sociology · Suffrage · Universal suffrage · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Political Theory and Influence

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