On Jul 8, 2009, at 9:49 AM, lukhman_khan wrote:
2. Is there any evidence of correlation between levels of educational
attainment and quality of democratic governance for countries?
With the present policy of one person one vote, throwing up all
sorts of lousy people into office, (for the past few decades,) is it
so difficult to imagine handing over the responsibility to the
educated for a change? (at least for a few years)?
While basic education is a prerequisite for a well-functioning
democratic government, the number of topics on which expertise will
likely produce consistently better policy are quite limited. A formal
education rarely stops people from appointing "experts" that offer
conclusions and affiliations that conform to the non-expert
appointer's biases.
Provincialism and tribalism among the population is a much bigger
problem in my opinion, and that seems to only have a weak inverse
correlation with formal education. Unlike education, this is a bit
more of a biological firmware issue.
Cheers,
J. Andrew Rogers
