Rational Ghosts: Why Democracy Fails

Philosophics — Philosophical and Political Ramblings · Oct 3, 2025 · 39m

This extended segment on the essay titled "Rational Ghosts – Why Enlightenment Democracy Was Built to Fail" by independent researcher Bry Willis, presents a structural critique of modern democratic systems. The author argues that democracy is inherently flawed because its Enlightenment blueprint assumed citizens were perfectly rational and consistent, a premise contradicted by evidence. Willis leverages three primary areas to demonstrate this mismatch: psychology, which shows voters are biased and tribal; mathematics, citing Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem to prove preference aggregation is…