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 Reference
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'.