An Epistemic Defense of Democracy: Democracies Do It Better?

Abstract

I have shown (chapters 2, 3, and 4) that individuals who are weakly altruistic have an incentive to vote, acquire political information, contribute money to candidates, and participate in a myriad of other forms of political activities. The issue of how politically informed individuals are has arisen in the more general context of how democratic government functions. Specifically, a debate over the epistemic value of democracy has been resurrected.