Since we're in the middle of election season in EVE, I found this article particularly amusing and appropriate. David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the two scientists behind the Dunning-Kruger Effect ("Incompetent people are too incompetent to know they're incompetent") have done some interesting research that indicates that it has an alarming corollary -- "Democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and policies".
The takeaway? Computer simulations imply that "democracies rarely or never elect the best leaders. Their advantage over dictatorships or other forms of government is merely that they 'effectively prevent lower-than-average candidates from becoming leaders'".
I guess this all just confirms what the eminent social scientist W. Churchill said over 100 years ago -- "Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
The polls open in New Eden on Wednesday. Get out there and vote -- and try not to do it too incompetently! :)
Not to take away from the encouragement to vote, but I wouldn't characterize the CSM as a form of government by any stretch of the imagination so I'm not completely convinced that compariosons of democratically-selected governments vs. those selected in other ways are relevant. The key thing that seems to concern CCP about CSM elects is "fairness" and an equal chance for all based on support they can drum up. "Good government" doesn't factor into their expectations, otherwise there would be some performance criteria imposed on prospected and seated CSM members (and no, the laughable "100 Likes" nonsense doesn't count as such).
ReplyDeleteThe CSM is a democratically elected player representative group. View them as lobbyists or focus group or whatever: the principle is still the same: the people voting for the CSM have no idea what the CSM actually does. We are incompetent to select the appropriate people to fill the CSM.
DeleteAh, but the paradox is, if you are competent enough to know you are incompetent, then by definition you are not incompetent. You may just have to do more research.
DeleteOne of my favorite expressions is "doubt and uncertainty are my friends; they keep me on my toes".
I posted this very article on my FB with the same allusion to Churchill.
ReplyDeleteI think this means we are equally incompetent! :)
DeleteSo by scientific research it is proven that The Mittani is not a lower-than-average candidate since else the democratic process would have reliably prevented his election ?
ReplyDelete