Voters Are Making a Mess of Democracy

In the U.S., a large if perhaps shrinking share of the population wants to elect as president a reality-television star with no apparent interest in learning anything about governing or the world around him. In the U.K., a majority of voters chose to exit the European Union despite experts' warnings of financial chaos and economic damage that so far are being borne out. In these and other democracies, voters are becoming increasingly enamored of protest candidates and populist parties that have no ability or perhaps even intention to live up to their promises.

Even if you believe that political elites in the U.S., U.K. and elsewhere have made a mess of things in recent years (and I do), it's still hard not to entertain the suspicion that maybe voters are a big part of the problem, too. As one political theorist recently wrote, "The basic problem is not that most voters seek to maximize their self-interest, but rather that most voters lack the knowledge necessary to make informed political judgments." Or, "The uncomfortable truth is that the best (perhaps only) way to reduce the political influence of ignorant voters is to deprive them of the vote."