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People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Mar 05, 2012 09:36am |
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| Category | Analysis |
| Author | Natalie Wolchover |
| Media | Website - Yahoo News |
| News Date | Tuesday, February 28, 2012 03:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they see it. But a growing body of research has revealed an unfortunate aspect of the human psyche that would seem to disprove this notion, and imply instead that democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and policies.
The research, led by David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University, shows that incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people, or the quality of those people's ideas. For example, if people lack expertise on tax reform, it is very difficult for them to identify the candidates who are actual experts. They simply lack the mental tools needed to make meaningful judgments.
Nagel concluded that democracies rarely or never elect the best leaders. Their advantage over dictatorships or other forms of government is merely that they "effectively prevent lower-than-average candidates from becoming leaders." |
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