Reddit reviews Against Democracy
We found 9 Reddit comments about Against Democracy. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Princeton University Press
We found 9 Reddit comments about Against Democracy. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
I mean, this was the literal point of the OP's linked article.
>There is no real solution to the problem of political ignorance, unless we are willing to break with democratic politics. [...] In my recent book Against Democracy, I discuss how we might experiment with epistocracy — where political power is widespread, as in a democracy, but votes are in some way weighted according to basic political knowledge.
He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Arizona, and is Associate Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.
He is the author of several books Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know and blogs at bleedingheartlibertarians.com
His new book, Against Democracy critically examines the merits and demerits of democracy and makes a case for epistocracy, "the rule of the knowledgeable".
Podcast interview http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/show/rs-176-jason-brennan-on-against-democracy.html
No, I'd say the article is exactly in line with your thinking:
> In short, the reason people are mostly ignorant and biased about politics is that the incentives are all wrong. Democracies make it so that no individual voters’ votes (or political beliefs) make a difference. As a result, no individual is punished for being ignorant or irrational, and no individual is rewarded for becoming informed and rational. Democracies incentivizes us to be “dumb”.
Changing the incentives is changing the system and that's what is needed.
See Against Democracy:
> 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 it's time to experiment and find out.
Il filosofo Jason Brennan ha scritto un libro, Against Democracy, in cui esprime la sua critica al suffragio universale. Ti invito a leggerlo perché è molto interessante e offre vari spunti di riflessione.
I don't share your view because of the same concerns raised so far. In any way, it's and interesting topic. Have you heard about this book? I think he's making a similar suggestion to yours (epistocracy, the rule of the knowledgeable). I haven't had time yet to give it a deeper view though.
Another thing I've heard about recently and found interesting is the following implementation of direct democracy. Suppose there is a public decision coming up. Instead of letting everyone vote, 10000 people are selected randomly from the population. These people are divided into small groups and send on several weekends to workshops in the countryside, where they inform themselves about and discuss the issue. It is important that both sides (of the matter the referendum is about ) are present and able to explains their view in depth. After this process the 10000 sampled people make a vote and that's the final decision.
Not to be a stickler, but you could easily argue that abstaining from voting is as sensible as going vegan, since it's all about supporting the status quo of a system that's based on unscientific nonsense. I've taken quiet an interest in democracy the past few years and the more I learn about it, the dumber it seems, kinda like animal agriculture.
If you're curious about the subject I'd highly recommend both Against Elections and Against Democracy. Democracy For Realists is pretty enlightening so far as well, but I'm not done with it yet.
https://www.amazon.com/Against-Democracy-Jason-Brennan/dp/0691162603
Oh man, I cannot recommend The Problem of Political Authority, by Michael Huemer enough. Here's a video on the first part of the book for an overview, but you really have to read the book to see how thorough he is. The first part of the book talks about the ethics of why government is not particularly morally justified. The second part really carefully reasons out how and why a stateless society could not just function, but thrive.
Voter irrationality is a big deal. Huemer also has this paper on why it's a good thing the average person is not more influential. Then Bryan Caplan has an excellent book that really delves into the political economy of voter irrationality. I've listened to it on audible, and though the reader is pretty dry, it's a very detailed explanation of just how much astray voters are. You can top off this category with Jason Brennan's Against Democracy.
If you guys want an example that will really bring out the importance of philosophy in relation to politics (especially in light of this US election season), please take a look at this brand new book by Prof. Jason Brennan (political philosophy prof at Georgetown). It's very accessible even to lay readers, so no worries if you haven't studied philosophy before!
Jason Brennan, Against Democracy (Princeton University Press: 2016). Read the first chapter here for free to see if you like it: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s10843.pdf
It will really challenge your assumptions about democracy and a lot of other political institutions and structures you may take for granted.
If you want a general introduction to political philosophy, see this really easy short video series (super engaging) with Brennan, starting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE5HCB5kdRg
____
Some other book suggestions: