Review: 10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less

10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less by Garett Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

During this whole book I found myself wondering:

A) What the author would make of Switzerland’s system, which is very different from what he is espousing, yet I think by any measure is a pretty successful one.

B) What Nassim Taleb would make of this book. I’m not 100% sure why, but I was very curious. 

The first part of the book was reminiscent of what Fareed Zakaria wrote about in an older book (I think “Future of Freedom”), wherein he shows how government bodies that are somewhat less democratic (the Fed, The court system, etc.) are more respected than, say, congress. The second part touched more on what the author calls an “epistocracy”. This sounds like one of those things that sound great in theory but are almost impossible to fulfill in reality. In fact, he seems short of details as to how to achieve this epistocracy. 

I found the chapter on Singapore quite interesting, as well as the fact that “The Italian law of June 30, 1912, granted the vote to illiterate people, but only on the condition that they had reached their thirtieth year or had fulfilled their military obligations.” (p. 107). 

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