What makes democracy work? Ignorance.
Collective ignorance is essential to the democratic process because it keeps extremists from dominating politics
Collective ignorance is essential to the democratic process because it keeps extremists from dominating politics
By
Douglas French , Guest blogger
What makes democracy work so well? Ignorance. The majority of voters don鈥檛 know anything about the issues and of course have no idea what candidates will do once in office. Ecologist Iain Couzin at Princeton figures this makes democracy work great. Jonah Lehrer writes for the Wall Street Journal:
Like schooling fishing and flocking birds, people in democracy just go with the flow. And, it all works out fine, right?