From: John Conover <john@email.johncon.com>
Subject: Re: Economics is a science
Burkhard C. Schipper writes:
>
> It depends what you mean by democracy. Arrow's impossiblity theorem shows
> clearly that you can not get all desirable properties in an outcome of
> social choice problem. Democracy is often sold by western countries as the
> non-plus-ultra. I think we should take certain shortcoming into account if
> we think about design of realistic social choice mechanisms. This is where
> science can question some political claims made.
>
But its pretty hard to run on the "I don't know what can't be known"
platform.
Particularly when the constituency thinks they know.
I suppose its a systemic game-theoretic structure where the best snake
oil salesmen prevail.
John
--
John Conover, john@email.johncon.com, http://www.johncon.com/