Rational Incompetence of Voters

Abstract

One of the biggest debates on the functioning of democracy concerns voter competence. It is sometimes claimed that voters are incompetent due to unreasonableness and ignorance, which has led some to advocate decision-making by experts—that is, epistocracy. However, in this paper, I show that under certain conditions—namely, asymmetric information signals—reasonable and non-ignorant voters can still be incompetent, even in the absence of misleading information. This rational incompetence can be a threat to democracy, but it can be a threat to epistocracy just as well, and for the same reason. Experts may be more rational than other citizens, but rationality does not necessarily imply competence.