Against Democracy

Inhaltsangabe zu "Against Democracy"

Gebundenes Buch
In this trenchant book, Brennan argues that democracy should be judged by its results - and the results are not good enough. Just as defendants have a right to a fair trial, citizens have a right to competent government. But democracy is the rule of the ignorant and the irrational, and it all too often falls short. Furthermore, no one has a fundamental right to any share of political power, and exercising political power does most of us little good. On the contrary, a wide range of social science research shows that political participation and democratic deliberation actually tend to make people worse - more irrational, biased, and mean. Given this grim picture, Brennan argues that a new system of government - epistocracy, the rule of the knowledgeable - may be better than democracy, and that its time to experiment and find out.