The Epistemic Theory of Democracy

At the beginning of the 21st century, some Western political theorists tried to justify democracy in an epistemic way. They wanted to prove that democracy leads to the most correct political decisions. Consequently, it is reasonable to say that a new normative theory of democracy has emerged — the epistemic theory. The article demonstrates that the existing epistemic justifications of democracy are presented in the forms of rational/moderate epistemic proceduralism (D. Estlund et al.), pure   epistemic proceduralism (F. Peter), as well as in other forms, for example reliability democracy (S. Prijić Samaržija). Within the framework of the first form, three main ways of epistemic justification of democracy can be distinguished, namely through the demonstration of epistemic advantages of: 1) deliberative practices; 2) the Condorcet jury theorem; 3) opinions’ diversity (the formula “diversity trumps ability”). Doubts are expressed that epistemic democracy can be seen as a form of deliberative democracy. This is because epistemic democrats not only value deliberation but also what is called the “miracle of aggregation”. The article explores the ideas of the main representatives of the epistemic theory of democracy and suggests   the most promising ways to criticize these theories. It also points out that all epistemic democrats lack a clear theory of   how their justifications relate to the purely procedural justifications of democracy based on the value of political equality.

1. Landemore H. Beyond the fact of disagreement? The epistemic turn in deliberative democracy. Social Epistemology. 2017;31(3):277-295. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2017.1317868

2. Goodin R. E., Spiekermann K. An Epistemic Theory of Democracy. Oxford: Oxford university press; 2018. 442 p.

3. Habermas J. The Inclusion of the Other. St. Petersburg: Nauka; 2008. 417 p. (In Russ.).

4. Nino C. S. The constitution of deliberative democracy. New Haven & London: Yale University Press; 1996. 251 p.

5. Cohen J. An Epistemic Conception of Democracy. Ethics. 1986;97(1):26-38. https://doi.org/10.1086/292815

6. Estlund D. Democratic Authority: A philosophical framework. Princeton: Princeton university press; 2008. 309 p.

7. Popper K. The Open Society and Its Enemies: The spell of Plato. Moscow: Feniks, Mezhdunarodnyj fond “Kul’turnaya iniciativa”; 1992. 448 p. (In Russ.).

8. Shumpeter J. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Moscow: Eksmo; 2008. 861 p. (In Russ.).

9. Riker W. Liberalism against Populism. Long Grove: Waveland Press; 1988; 311 p.

10. Hardin R. Liberalism, constitutionalism, and democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1999. 398 p.

11. Przeworski A. Minimalist conception of democracy: a defense. In: Dahl R., Shapiro I. and Cheibub J.A., editors. The democracy sourcebook. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press; 1999. p. 12-17.

12. Arneson R. Debate: Defending the Purely Instrumental Account of Democratic Legitimacy. Journal of Political Philosophy. Journal of Political Philosophy. 2003;11(1):122-132. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9760.00170

13. Wall S. Democracy and Equality. Political Quarterly. 2007;57:416-438. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9213.2007.495.x

14. Peter F. Democratic Legitimacy and Proceduralist Social Epistemology. Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. 2007;6(3):329-353. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470594X07081303

15. Peter F. Pure Epistemic Proceduralism. Episteme: A Journal of Social Epistemology . 2008;5(1):33-55. https://doi.org/10.3366/E 1742360008000221

16. Longino H. The fate of knowledge. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 2002. 233 p.

17. Prijić Samaržija S. Democracy and Truth: The Conflict between Political and Epistemic Virtues. Milan: Mimesis International; 2018. 262 p.

18. Christiano T. Rational Deliberation among Experts and Citizens. Deliberative Systems: Deliberative Democracy at the Large Scale. Ed. by J. Parkinson and J. Mansbridge. Cambridge: Cambridge university press; 2012:27-51.

19. Prijić Samaržija S. The division of epistemic labor in democracy. Anali Hrvatskog Politiloškog Društva . 2016;12(1):67-81. https://doi.org/10.20901/an.12.05

20. Prijić Samaržija S. The epistemology of democracy: the epistemic virtues of democracy philosophy and society. Filozofija i drustvo. 2020;31(1):56-70. https://doi.org/10.2298/FID 2001056P

21. Landemore H. Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence, and the Rule of the Many. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press; 2013. 279 p.

22. Hong L., Page S. Groups of Diverse Problem Solvers Can Outperform Groups of High-Ability Problem Solvers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. 2004;101(46):16385-16389.

23. Page S. E. The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. Princeton, New York: Princeton University Press; 2007. 424 p.

24. Benson J. The epistemic value of deliberative democracy: how far can diversity take us? Synthese. 2021;199:8257-8289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-021-03161-0

25. Rothstein B. Epistemic democracy and the quality of government. European Politics and Society. 2019;1(20):16-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2018.1515873

26. Condorcet. Selected Writings. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill; 1976. 304 p.

27. Grofman B., Owen G., Feld S.L. Thirteen theorems in search of the truth. Theory & Decision. 1983;15(3):261-278. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00125672

28. Berend D., Paroush J. When is Condorcet’s Jury Theorem valid? Social Choice and Welfare. 1998;15(4):481-488. https://doi.org/10.1007/s003550050118

29. Goodin R. E. Reflective Democracy. New York: Oxford university press; 2003. 279 p. https://doi.org/10.1086/428465