> Given all the barefaced lies told during the Brexit campaign and the US campaign it does lead to questions about democracy, i.e. should the average man on the street really decide?
I think (I hope) that the problem isn't the average man, but rather our system of democracy itself. Currently, there is not any reason to do the hard work it requires to become informed, because with millions of other voters (not to mention the winner-takes-all electoral college) your vote literally does not matter. Contrast that situation with a twelve person jury, where the jurors spend weeks and sometimes months to decide, gathering every bit of relevant information, and letting each side argue in as fair a way as possible. Then the jurors spend days in discussions with their peers, often agonizing over their decisions. These are regular people, who usually make good decisions, because they know that their decision matters. Contrast this with the voter who gets all of their information from a limited number of biased sources and then makes their voting decision on a whim, and who can blame them when there is no probability of their vote changing the outcome? Elections ought to be more like juries, with a smaller number of voters randomly selected from the population and then thoroughly educated on the issues.
I think (I hope) that the problem isn't the average man, but rather our system of democracy itself. Currently, there is not any reason to do the hard work it requires to become informed, because with millions of other voters (not to mention the winner-takes-all electoral college) your vote literally does not matter. Contrast that situation with a twelve person jury, where the jurors spend weeks and sometimes months to decide, gathering every bit of relevant information, and letting each side argue in as fair a way as possible. Then the jurors spend days in discussions with their peers, often agonizing over their decisions. These are regular people, who usually make good decisions, because they know that their decision matters. Contrast this with the voter who gets all of their information from a limited number of biased sources and then makes their voting decision on a whim, and who can blame them when there is no probability of their vote changing the outcome? Elections ought to be more like juries, with a smaller number of voters randomly selected from the population and then thoroughly educated on the issues.