Rational Ghosts: Enlightenment Democracy's Failure

The provided source, an essay titled "Rational Ghosts: Why Enlightenment Democracy Was Built to Fail," presents a significant critique of modern democratic systems, arguing that they are founded upon an unrealistic assumption of the perfectly rational, informed citizen. The author asserts that this concept of the "rational ghost" ignores psychological realities, such as cognitive biases, and mathematical limitations, referencing Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, which proves the failure of voting systems to accurately translate public preference. Furthermore, the critique highlights sociological scale issues, citing Dunbar's number to show how effective community trust breaks down in large nation-states, reducing national discourse to mere "imagined communities." The essay concludes by proposing alternative, less "haunted" governance models, such as sortition and subsidiarity, suggesting that political institutions must be designed for actual humans rather than for mythical, idealised citizens.https://philosophics.blog/2025/10/02/rational-ghosts-why-enlightenment-democracy-was-built-to-fail/