For me, at
least, the question is not at all a rhetorical one, for I have become
convinced, in part because of the reaction to my earlier book Our
Undemocratic Constitution that most Americans are not particularly enamored
of what might be termed robust notions of majoritarian democracy. (And
perhaps they are right to hold such beliefs, which is why the question is not
rhetorical.) The format of the symposium will be to focus on three recent
books on the plausibility of what might be termed “the democratic project.”
The first, by Yale professor Helene Landemore, Democratic Reason, (Princeton,
2013) offers a quite vigorous defense of mass democracy, based on the
Condorcet jury theorem (and the associated argument about the “wisdom of
crowds”). Greater skepticism is expressed by Jamie Kelley, of Vassar, who
in Framing Democracy (Princeton, 2013) brings contemporary “frame
analysis” (associated, say, with the work of Noble Prize-winner Daniel
Kahneman), to bear to argue that “framing effects” work to make the idea of
intelligent choice by ordinary voters highly implausible. The most
vigorous critic of democracy is George Mason professor of law Ilya Somin, who
has just published Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter (Stanford University Press,
2013). Each of the first three panels will focus on one of these books,
with their central ideas presented and critiqued by two scholars, with the
opportunity for a short response by the author. There will be ample time
for discussion. The specific schedule is as follows:
IS DEMOCRACY DESIRABLE?
9:00 Opening Remarks
2-3:30 Panel Three: Ilya
Somin, DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL IGNORANCE:
Heather Gerken and Sandy Levinson
I anticipate that the panels and discussions will be available on a web site, though I will supply more information about that next week.
Yale Law Professor Heather Gerken will, incidentally, also be presenting an endowed lecture also co-sponsored by the Law School and Department of Government on Thursday, January 30, at 5:30. The title of her lecture is "The Loyal Opposition," which discusses federalism as a way of assuring the presence of at least some oppositionist government to any national government.