Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Normative Study of Collective Decision Making
- 2 Ignorance, Secrecy, and Publicity in Jury Decision Making
- 3 A Dialogue with Bentham
- 4 The Optimal Design of Constituent Assemblies
- 5 Cross-Voting: A Study in Failure
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
- References
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Normative Study of Collective Decision Making
- 2 Ignorance, Secrecy, and Publicity in Jury Decision Making
- 3 A Dialogue with Bentham
- 4 The Optimal Design of Constituent Assemblies
- 5 Cross-Voting: A Study in Failure
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
- References
Summary
Securities Against Misrule was the title of a work by Bentham from 1822–23, one of several writings on a proposed constitution for Tripoli. The main idea was already stated in Political Tactics (1789):
The tactics of political assemblies form the science . . . which teaches how to guide them to the end of their institution, by means of the order to be observed in their proceedings.
In this branch of government, as in many others, the end is so to speak of a negative character. The object is to avoid the inconveniences, to prevent the difficulties, which must result from a large assembly of men being called to deliberate in common. The art of the legislator is limited to the prevention of everything which might prevent the development of their liberty and their intelligence.
The aim of the present book is to develop, generalize, and, to some degree, modify the claim made in the sentence I have italicized.
Before deciding on the title, I thought of calling the book Bentham against Condorcet. In Chapter 1 I argue, in fact, that the social-choice tradition stemming from Condorcet has little relevance for the normative theory of collective decision making. In Chapter 3 I make a similar claim with regard to the Condorcet Jury Theorem. By contrast, Bentham’s relentless realism and his insight into the operations and the failings of actual institutions provide, or so I shall argue throughout the book, a superior guide to institutional reform. To get a feeling for the drift of my argument, readers are encouraged to consult the list – which is far from exhaustive – of Benthamite schemes that I offer in the Conclusion (p. 272).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Securities against MisruleJuries, Assemblies, Elections, pp. 1 - 14Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013