Cognitivist fallacy in theory of democracy

ADAM CHMIELEWSKI

Instytut Filozofii, Uniwersytet Wrocławski, ul. Koszarowa 3/20, 51-149 Wrocław
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6001-5309

Abstract

The opposition between the participationist approach, which favours wide participation of the people in democratic political process, and the deliberationist model, according to which political power should be exercised by people endowed with adequate cognitive competences, remains an important theme of the present debates in the theory of democracy. The author believes that those interpretations of the deliberationist model which perceive knowledge as a primary source of legitimation of participation in the political power, are guilty of a “cognitivist fallacy”, and points out to dangers stemming from ascribing a prominent role to cognitive competences. In opposition to the “epistocratic” model, he stressed the importance of political skill in the governance of democratic systems. Taking as a starting point the belief that the normative ideal of democracy is based upon an egalitarian assumption of potentially universal ability to develop the political skill, he claims that this potentiality can be actualized through the very participation in political activity.