Demokrati og uvitenhet

Abstract

We first discuss the so-called «ignorance objection» to democracy, which claims that most voters know little about politics, and that epistocracy is therefore preferable. We conclude that a) either ignorance objection is weak, or b) it implies that both democracy and epistocracy are unacceptable forms of governance. In the second part of the article, we present several challenges with a recently published contribution (in this journal) to the epistocracy debate authored by Kristian Ekeli. Our overall conclusion is that, although the ignorance objection has been central to the debate on democracy, it is poorly understood. It is still an open question what the objection more precisely entails, and what consequences it has for democracy as a form of government.