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Democracy : a guided tour / Jason Brennan.

by Brennan, Jason, 1979- author.

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New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2023]

Democracy -- Philosophy.

Democracy -- Moral and ethical aspects.

Political science -- Philosophy.

Democracy -- History.

9780197558812 hardcover

019755881X hardcover

ix, 315 pages ; 22 cm

Democracy: why or why not? -- For stability: stability through shared power -- Against stability: passion and polarization -- For virtue: does democracy enlighten and ennoble? -- Against virtue: does democracy make us angry, mean, and dumb? -- For wisdom: two heads are smarter than one -- Against wisdom: garbage in, garbage out -- For liberty: the consent of the governed? -- Against liberty: democracy as the many-headed master -- For equality: democracy as the public expression of equal standing -- Against equality: is democratic equality an illusion?

"Democracy is both an obvious and dubious idea. Here's why democracy is an obvious idea: For most of history, most governments divided people into the few who rule and the many who obey. The few then used the state to advance their own private interests at the expense of the many. Rulers were less like noble protectors appointed by God and more like intestinal parasites. The obvious solution is to eliminate the distinction between those who rule and those who obey. Make every citizen both a ruler and a subject of that rule. This ensures government promotes everyone's interests. Thus, democracy is the best form of government. It's too bad it took most of civilized history to realize this-and too bad that the world isn't more democratic than it is. Here's why democracy is a dubious idea. Government decisions are high stakes. It decides matters of war and peace, prosperity and poverty, freedom or oppression. Yet we let incompetent people steer the ship of state. Most voters are ignorant and process what little information they have in biased and irrational ways. They fall prey to propaganda and demagogues. They are conformists and don't even try to vote their interests. Democracy is the political equivalent of drunk driving. Thus, democracy is a defective form of government. Democracy is a method by which the masses shoot themselves in their feet. Philosophy students often start essays by writing, "Since the dawn of time, humanity has pondered..." In this case, these arguments and concerns are old, if not dawn-of-time old. We find laypeople, pundits, social scientists, and philosophers making these two arguments today. But in ancient Athens, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle said similar things"--

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