Scientists Say People Aren't Smart Enough For Democracy To Flourish

cold fjord writes "The inability of the incompetent to recognize their own limitations is a story that has been covered before on Slashdot. But, what happens when you apply that finding to politics? From the article: 'The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea. 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 shows that incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people, or the quality of those people's ideas. 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...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."'"

Comments

Re:Not smart Enough?

[TheRealMindChild]

Driving in the left lane but not passing anyone. (you should be in the right most lane unless you are passing or making room for someone merging in)

Wrong. Not all left lanes are passing lanes. Plenty are turning lanes. Turning lanes, by definition can't be passing lanes, because the traffic patterns for turning vehicles kills any chance so safely passing anything.

Also, your gripes infer that people just aren't going as fast as you want to go. Are you sure they are the problem?