Has the word “democracy” become a catch-all for good government? At this point, the idea is so romanticized that it may go unnoticed that the way America is run today is somewhere between a democracy and an oligarchy.

Garett Jones, associate professor of Economics at George Mason University, delves into those questions in his book 10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less. He also studies the factors and foundations of economic growth in his book The Culture Transplant: How Migrants Make the Economies They Move To a Lot Like The Ones They Left. 

Garett and Greg discuss the true meaning of the word “democracy,” whether it’s better to have a well-educated elite calling the shots, and how migration can actually determine how prosperous a country will be. 

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

What we love about our so-called ‘democratic system” are its most undemocratic parts

03:18: When people use the phrase "we're a nation of laws, not of men," that's a way of saying in the short run, democracy doesn't decide how this trial turns out; the voters don't get to rule on this. We have some rules we set a long time ago. We have some nerdy judges who oversee the system, and they're making the decisions. So a lot of what we love about our so-called “democratic system" are its most undemocratic parts.

08:54: The closer a politician is to voters, the further the politician is from wisdom.

How do we measure democracy?

06:09: The modern methods of measuring democracy often make this mistake of blurring together, like actual voter participation in government with neutral rules that can't be manipulated in the short run. So the first part, to me, is truly democratic. The second part is pretty much judicial independence, which is not democratic.

Can migration determine how prosperous a country will be?

43:04: The most important channel through which immigration of people from places like China and Western Europe the way that ends up shaping broadly shared prosperity is through our old cliche in economics, which is institutions. So for reasons that are somewhat poorly understood, countries that wind up with a lot of migrants from Eastern Europe, Western Europe, or Eastern Asia tend to wind up with better institutions, better rules of the game. Better rule of law, lower corruption, and that by itself creates a better set of rules that help create broadly shared prosperity for everyone.

• The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies by Bryan Caplan
• Political Realism by Jonathan Rauch
• Iron law of oligarchy
• Political Parties by Robert Michels
• Tammany Hall

• Faculty Profile at George Mason University
• Garett Jones Website
• Garrett Jones on LinkedIn
• Garett Jones on Twitter

• 10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less
• The Culture Transplant: How Migrants Make the Economies They Move To a Lot Like The Ones They Left
• Hive Mind: How Your Nation’s IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own
• Banking Crises: Perspectives from the New Palgrave Dictionary of Economic
• Articles on Econlib
• More scholarly articles