Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence, and the Rule of the Many

(Paperback)

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Individual decision making can often be wrong due to misinformation, impulses, or biases. Collective decision making, on the other hand, can be surprisingly accurate. In Democratic Reason, Helene Landemore demonstrates that the very factors behind the superiority of collective decision making add up to a strong case for democracy. She shows that th

Reviews

"[D]emocratic Reason is well-written and well-researched, and it offers a powerful, anti-elitist antidote to recent theoretical and empirical critiques of democracy."--Choice "Using social-psychology tools that few scholars of democracy incorporate into their work, Democratic Reason represents a valuable interdisciplinary approach to understanding democracy. It invites us to expand our mental horizons in ways that are rarely seen in the world of normative political theory. Written with superb clarity and a masterful command of both the democratic-theory literature and the empirical literature on voting behavior, Landemore dares to think outside the box, honoring her very own concept of cognitive diversity."--Julia Maskivker, Review of Politics

Author Bio

Helene Landemore is assistant professor of political science at Yale University. She is the author of Hume: Probability and Reasonable Choice.