TY - JOUR
T1 - The Epistemology of Democracy and the Market
T2 - Rejoinder to Elliott
AU - DeCanio, Samuel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Epistemic democratic theory often focuses on defending democracy from various forms of elitism, such as epistocracy. However, democracy’s informational properties may also be compared with those of the market, and not other forms of political decision-making. While Kevin Elliott’s critique of the market’s epistemic properties is a welcome contribution that broadens the range of comparisons epistemic democratic theory engages with, Elliott mischaracterizes arguments made by market theorists, overlooks their justifications for employing unrealistic assumptions, and ignores instances where they agree with his critiques and arguments. This paper examines arguments regarding the epistemology of democracy and the market, and discusses the comparative knowledge requirements each competitive system requires of its participants within the wider context of epistemic democratic theory.
AB - Epistemic democratic theory often focuses on defending democracy from various forms of elitism, such as epistocracy. However, democracy’s informational properties may also be compared with those of the market, and not other forms of political decision-making. While Kevin Elliott’s critique of the market’s epistemic properties is a welcome contribution that broadens the range of comparisons epistemic democratic theory engages with, Elliott mischaracterizes arguments made by market theorists, overlooks their justifications for employing unrealistic assumptions, and ignores instances where they agree with his critiques and arguments. This paper examines arguments regarding the epistemology of democracy and the market, and discusses the comparative knowledge requirements each competitive system requires of its participants within the wider context of epistemic democratic theory.
KW - comparative institutional analysis
KW - democracy
KW - epistemic democratic theory
KW - markets
KW - voter ignorance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85195638987&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08913811.2024.2363028
DO - 10.1080/08913811.2024.2363028
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85195638987
SN - 0891-3811
VL - 36
SP - 183
EP - 197
JO - CRITICAL REVIEW
JF - CRITICAL REVIEW
IS - 1-2
ER -