August 21, 2016
The Conservative Argument for Democracy
In my view, what’s the most troubling argument against my view? I’m not impressed by any of the deontological arguments for democracy. But here’s a type of consequentialist objection which I’m…
All posts in: Democracy
August 18, 2016
Schleisser contra Brennan on Epistocracy, Sort Of
Eric Schleisser considers himself a fierce critic of Brennanism. I’m not so sure he his, because he often seems to be arguing against positions that are closely related to mine,…
August 17, 2016
The Page 99 Test: Against Democracy
“Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.” –Ford Madox Ford The Page 99 Test is a website that…
August 15, 2016
Is Democracy Going Out of Fashion? Are All Heads Together Always Smarter than Just Some Heads?
So asks conservative British Member of the European Parliament Dan Hannan in today’s Washington Examiner. I’m among his targets, though, like many critics, he confuses epistocracy with technocracy. Still, his main…
August 12, 2016
Deliberative Democracy: A “Neutral” Result is a Negative Result
Chapter 3 of Against Democracy looks at the empirical work on how political participation, and in particular, deliberative democracy, affects us. Mill hypothesized that deliberation would tend to educate and ennoble…
August 11, 2016
4 Ways to Be a Better Voter, in Scientific American
Here’s a nice article from Scientific American’s Mind’s September edition on becoming a better voter, including parts of an interview with me on this topic. Excerpt: “We’ve found that having more information…