September 21, 2016
Improving Grand Juries
I originally intended to have at least 2 more posts on grand juries, but decided against. They were both going to be “its unbelievable how easy it is to get…
All posts in: Democracy
September 13, 2016
The Expressive Meaning of Democracy (Plus: Why Are Philosophers so Enamored of Semiotic Arguments?)
In chapter 5 of Against Democracy, I attack “semiotic” or expressive arguments for democracy. These arguments try to prove that democracy is intrinsically just, or epistocracy is intrinsically unjust, because of…
September 12, 2016
Grand Jury nullification
Here are two fictionalized cases where the arrested individuals were fortunately not indicted. Case 1. A young male stormed out of a court room after the judge indicated he should leave….
September 07, 2016
Against Democracy at the National Interest
Today at the the National Interest, I have a 300o-word adapted version of Against Democracy. Beginning: Just over twenty years ago Francis Fukuyama declared liberal democracy the end of history. But history marched on,…
September 06, 2016
Phones, Phones, Phones—But Not Really
Take a moment to imagine the following 2 scenarios. Scenario 1. Company A produced the ExcellaFone smartphone which was widely loved and had no problems. It was widely regarded as…
August 24, 2016
How Can a Libertarian Say That? (On Incompetent Voters and Competent Market Agents)
Roughly 35% of my published work responds to problems of voter ignorance and irrationality. I sometimes get pushback from both libertarians and non-libertarians that goes roughly as follows: “Wait, so…