Democracy VS Epistocraty

[Professor K]

What would you choose between these two values?

-Democracy? Everybody has political rights.

-Epistocracy? Only skilled, knowledgable people can posses these rights.

Or maybe even something in the middle, an epistocratic democracy ?

 

[Just_Another_Person]

Democracy all the way, it has its problems but at least there is a (low) chance of you going up. Epistocracy would be a dictatorship where who has the power passes it to their descendants and the chance to someone "low-born" going up is zero.

 

[WithTheFlow]

I think what people rarely bring up regarding the problems with democracy is that population size matters. There is a significant difference between democratic decision-making in a small, homogeneous polity compared to a very large, heterogeneous polity, such as the United States which comprises 334 million people.

I don't think imposing control over 334 million people, whatever the system of government, is optimal nor necessary.

I don't mind the idea of democracy in a small, homogeneous community.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Interesting question. It reminds me of something I watched on TV once where this woman was saying- there ought to be some sort of knowledge/political awareness test before someone can vote. She justified this by saying her Mum voted for Tony Blair because she liked his smile! I don't tend to vote at all because I don't feel interested or knowledgeable enough to do so.

Another major factor though is- even if someone is well read on all the political parties' policies out there. That won't prevent politicians making very appealing claims to get voted in and then doing u-turns on most of what they promised! Another reason I don't vote is because I don't trust any of them to keep their word! Better just to allow clairvoyants or those very attuned to spotting liars to vote.