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Full Idea
At its best [direct democracy] is inexperience sitting in judgement on experience, ignorance on knowledge.
Gist of Idea
Direct democracy is inexperience judging experience, and ignorance judging knowledge
Source
John Stuart Mill (Representative Government [1861], p.232), quoted by Jonathan Wolff - An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev) 4 'Representative'
Book Ref
Wolff,Jonathan: 'An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev)' [OUP 2006], p.95
A Reaction
Recent experiments have suggested that inexperienced people can become very good at making large decisions, if they are allowed to consult experts when they want to. See Van Reybrouck's 'Against Elections'.
| 141 | A good citizen won't be passive, but will redirect the needs of the state [Plato] |
| 19920 | Democracy is a legitimate gathering of people who do whatever they can do [Spinoza] |
| 19967 | In a democracy the people should manage themselves, and only delegate what they can't do [Montesquieu] |
| 19966 | A democratic assembly must have a fixed number, to see whether everyone has spoken [Montesquieu] |
| 19749 | In a direct democracy, only the leaders should be able to propose new laws [Rousseau] |
| 20505 | Direct democracy is inexperience judging experience, and ignorance judging knowledge [Mill] |
| 21528 | Groups should be autonomous, with a neutral authority as arbitrator [Russell] |
| 20094 | You don't really govern people if you don't involve them [Reybrouck] |
| 20560 | Teledemocracy omits debate and deliberation, which are important parts of good decisions [Swift] |