Can We Improve Democracy? | Jason Brennan | Escaped Sapiens #100

Most people view democracy as the best form of government we have, but also as a moral good. Everyone is given an equal right to vote. Leaders are replaced peacefully, and governments are encouraged to be accountable to the people because of the voting power they hold. That all sounds good compared with monarchies and dictatorships, but what if we can still do better? In this conversation I speak with Political Philosopher and Author of `Against Democracy' Jason Brennan. He argues that because each individual vote counts for so little, democracy has no real incentive for voters to become politically well informed. As a result, the political system is driven by the ignorant, poorly informed voters. Furthermore, a wide range of social science research shows that political participation and democratic deliberation actually tend to make people more irrational, biased, and mean. For this reason, political philosophers have put forward a range of alternatives to our current system of voting. In this discussion we cover one particularly interesting approach to voting, which attempts to count the votes of an election in a more sophisitcated manner, which simulates how a population would have voted if it had been better informed.

►Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pwddex9uCk&list=PLnE3V9mcAvmbGgs15Z0LkfHv0_1Hm5i9Z&index=1 ►You can find out more about Jason's work here: https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/faculty-publications?id=00336000014RXIUAA4

►Check out Jason's book: https://www.amazon.nl/Against-Democracy-Jason-Brennan/dp/0691162603