Abstract

Democracy has been widely claimed to be the best form of government there is. One reason for which is the power that it confers to the people. But what happens if the people do not have the correct knowledge to exercise that power? This is the problem of knowledge in a democracy. Every election, the electorate has the power to vote certain political candidates into office, a clear exercise of democracy, but just like any other power, this can be misused. In this paper, I seek to advance a framework to guide the electorate in voting the suitable political candidates into office. I call this framework political meritocracy and lay out its components. While this framework is commonsensical, I bring out some of its political implications, which are largely counterintuitive. Then, I explore how this framework can be inculcated through formal education and what I call enlightened political discourse. While the framework of political meritocracy does not wipe out the problem of knowledge, it goes a long way towards lessening it.