Abstract

The article deals with epistocratic theorists and their reflection over people’s political ignorance. In their view, the cognitive weakness of citizens betrays the reluctance to act as political decision-makers and the consequent necessity to limit people’s power in favor of more committed epistemic agents. Goal of the paper is to explain conceptual premises of epistocracy, uncover its fallacy, but safe the intuition that epistème represents a pivotal element for democratic theory. Epistocratic criticism spotlights the role of «enlightened» demos as normative assumption of democracy. On this basis, the analysis argues that protection and diffusion of factual knowledge should be institutionalized as democracy already institutionalizes citizens’ ability to understand reality and decide accordingly.