Cognitive Division of Labour
The idea, from economist Joseph Schumpeter, that in a complex society not everyone can have well-formed views on all questions — and that democratic systems therefore need mechanisms for navigating who decides what.
Developed in the Australian context by economist Nicolas Gruen at the 2017 Designing Open Democracy event. Gruen argued that elections are a competitive mechanism that rewards emotional mobilisation over considered judgement, and proposed supplementing elected chambers with citizen juries selected by sortition as a way of addressing this. As he put it: "The magic trick is that the reason for current troubles is because the pollies are the bad guys. But we are getting exactly what we're asking for."
Further reading
- Nicolas Gruen's 2017 DOD presentation — recording and full notes
- Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1943)
- Nicolas Gruen — Wikipedia