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Why Not Epistocracy

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Why Not Epistocracy Why Not Epnstocracyf David Estlund I Introduction It is natural to think that the wise ought to rule, and yet it is now universally denied. One reason for this is that many people think that ruling arrangements ought to be justifiable in a generally acceptable way. Given so much reasonable dispute about who counts as wise in the right way, and other matters, it might seem doubtful that rule of the wise could meet this standard of generally acceptable justification. On the other hand, a decent education, including, say, some knowledge of politics, history, economics, close experience with others from di­ verse backgrounds, etc., must be admitted to improve the ability to rule wisely, other things equal, or at least assuming a certain measure of good will (otherwise these neutral means might only make a bad person more dangerous). But then why shouldn't there be general agreement that citizens with such an education should have more votes than others^ Is the only reason for this the assumption that whoever has more power will unjustly favor themselves^ Should we all accept rule of the wise if that condition were overcome^ If some political outcomes count as better than others, then surely some citizens are better (if only less bad) than others with regard to their wisdom and good faith in promoting the better outcomes. If so, this looks like an important reason to leave the decisions up to them. For purposes of this essay, call them the knowers, or the wise; the form of government in which they rule might be called epistocracy, and the rulers called epistocrats based on the Greek word episteme, meaning knowledge. Perhaps it is possible to know what is best and yet not choose to do it, and this point might be deployed against epistocracy. I will simplify matters at the beginning by supposing (with, for example, 54 • David Estlund Socrates1) that the knowers would do what they think is best (I return to the issue later). Alternatively, if this is too much to swallow, just build this extra public-spirited motivational assumption into the char­ acters who will be considered as potential epistocrats. So, I assume for purposes of argument that some are wiser than others in this way, and that they would do what they thought best for the polity. The big question behind the more specific one I will concentrate on is why these wiser folks shouldn't rule: why not epistocracy^ The more specific proposal 1 will consider and criticize is that, in particular, the better educated would rule more wisely, and should accordingly have more political authority in the form of having more voting power than others. John Stuart Mill notoriously proposed to give more votes to the better educated.2 In political philosophy it is natural to think of the authori­ tarian Plato and the liberal anti-paternalist John Stuart Mill as having little to do with each other. In fact Mill was profoundly influenced by Plato.3 The explicitly Socratic spirit of rational examination of our lives and convictions is among Mill's deepest convictions, and gives Mill's influential view of liberty much of its characteristic shape. Perhaps, though, that is Socrates more than Plato and so less surprising. But Mill was also sympathetic to the distinctively Platonic idea that political authority ought to be in the hands of those most capable of exercising it wisely and justly. We find this view in Socrates, too,4 but it is developed most fully by Plato in the Republic. Like Plato, Mill argued that the superior wisdom of an identifiable minority justified their having greater political authority. In particular, Mill thought, citizens with a high degree of education ought to have more votes than others, even if all ought to have the right to vote. I will call rule of the educated scholocracy, noting that Mill's is a moderate version in which suffrage is universal: one person, at least one vote. My strategy is not the more familiar one of arguing that even though we must grant that the educated might rule more wisely, there are 1 See Plato, Protagoras. 2 Mill 1950, Chapter VIII 3 See Irwin 1997. 4 The texts and interpretive issues are canvassed in Kraut (1997, Chapter 7, section 8). Why Not Epistocracy £ • 55 reasons of equal respect or procedural fairness that directly and deci­ sively preclude giving some citizens more votes than others.5 1 will not deny (nor accept) that the educated have the superior wisdom Mill's argument supposes, but deny that such a claim is available as a justifi­ cation for unequal political authority. In any case, my aim is as much to explain and acknowledge the challenge posed by Millean scholocracy as it is fully to answer it. I begin by showing what is formidable about Mill's proposal of 1 plural' or weighted voting that privileges the highly educated. I con­ sider first a point that Aristotle makes against Platonic rule by a small, wise elite. Mill, in effect, takes Aristotle's anti-elitist point on-board, but then improves the case for a moderate epistocracy in response. I then consider a way of resisting Mill's proposal — namely, a demo­ graphic objection. I conclude by noting an implication of my argument for an ideal of formally equal individual voting power. II Aristotle vs Platonic epistocracy Although it is easier to grant that there are experts on technical matters than on practical matters more broadly, including moral matters, less would follow about practical authority, of course, if expertise were only technical. I want to grant for the sake of argument that there are experts of both kinds, since this would only strengthen the result if I can still show that the case for epistocracy can be resisted. Suppose, then, that there are a small number of citizens who have, to an especially high degree, a morally informed practical wisdom that is pertinent to the conduct of political affairs. In the first instance, I mean by this that each of these people knows better than anyone outside of this group what ought, politically, to be done. It might seem, then, that the state ought to be ruled by this wise group, and that all citizens would have a duty to do as this group directs. Even with this unusually intense emphasis on tlie tendency toward correct decisions, the conclusion does not obviously follow, as some remarks of Aristotle's suggest.6 The main idea can be seen most easily 5 Arneson 1993, especially pp. 133-8; Beitz 1989, 38-40. 6 For a useful discussion of these texts, see Waldron 1999, Chapter 5. 56 • David Estlund if we suppose that the wise group consisted of a single person. Even granting that following her directions would lead to correct political decisions more often than following anyone else's directions, decisions would tend to be better yet if she were to deliberate and decide along with several others — say, the next wisest in the society. The point is obvious in the case of a simple non-moral test, say of the standardized variety used to qualify applicants for college. The single best performer in a group would certainly not do as well as a cooperative effort by the top several performers, even though enlarging the group of testtakers reduces average competence. The same point is extremely plausible when the task is what to do politically. On this basis, Aristotle rejected the simple argument that the few wisest ought to rule since they know best what ought to be done. So the question about the wise elite is not whether its members are individually wiser than others, nor whether as a group it is wiser than any group of others, but whether it is wiser than any group at all, including larger groups that include all members of this wise elite.7 Aristotle sees that this is too abstract a point to rule out the possi­ bility of a person so much wiser than others that there is nothing to gain and much to lose by his consulting with them. If someone is that much wiser, then that person ought to rule over the others,8 he admits, and if others presume to rule over this person their supposed authority is null and 'ridiculous' (geloios)9 So the epistemic value of a large group of rulers is not a general enough phenomenon to block the legitimacy of epistocracy even on Aristotle's view, though it significantly restricts its application. It is important to see that, even granting the epistemic value of discussion among diverse participants, it would not follow that every participant ought to have equal standing when it comes to making the final decision. For one thing, the value of the discussion does not depend on letting any but the wise elite have any votes at all. The contribution of the others to the discussion might be gratefully acknowledged just 7 Aristotle's point should not be confused with Condorcet's 'jury theorem', which rests on an entirely different basis. For introduction to the jury theory in the context of democracy see, Grofman and Feld (1988). 8 Aristotle, in Rackham 1944, 1284b32 9 Aristotle, in Rackham 1944, 1284a4-14 Why Not Epistocracyt • 57 before the wise ruling elite repairs to its legislative chamber to vote. Why not think that the way to maximize the epistemic value of a high-quality public discussion is to let it work its magic on the minds of the wisest citizens, and then let them rule£ Mill argues that people will be improved by the change in their motivations that accompanies being entrusted with a vote.
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