On Demographics, Diversity, and Democracy

Democracy and Diversity

2 Are we what are made to be or do we choose what we are? We choose who we are within what we are made to be Jean-Paul Sartre International IDEA publications are independent of specific national or political interests. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of IDEA, its Board, its Council members or other organizations involved in its production. Printouts of...

Does Diversity Hurt Democracy?

While reporting recently on his organization’s annual survey of political rights and civil liberties around the world, Freedom House president Adrian Karatnycky repeated the claim—heard often in academic and public discourse alike—that ethnic diversity hinders open politics. Reviewing the findings of the 2001 survey, he concluded that “democracy has been significantly more successful in monoeth...

Cognitive Diversity, Binary Decisions, and Epistemic Democracy

In Democratic Reason, Helene Landemore has built a case for the epistemic virtues of inclusive deliberative democracy based on the cognitive diversity of the group engaged in making collective decisions. She supports her thesis by appealing to the Diversity Trumps Ability Theorem of Lu Hong and Scott Page. In practice, deliberative assemblies often restrict attent...

The Diverse Causal Effects of Diversity on Democracy

Epistemic democracy in classical Athens : Sophistication , diversity , and innovation

Analysis of democracy in Athens as an “epistemic” (knowledge-based) form of political and social organization. Adapted from Ober, Democracy and Knowledge, chapters 1-4. Jon Elster (ed.), volume on “Collective Wisdom” (to be published in English and French). © Josiah Ober. [email protected]