Britons will pay the price for the folly of universal suffrage

The great thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment doubted the wisdom of universal suffrage. They did not believe that every adult should participate in choosing government. Jean Jacques Rousseau argued the case of the social contract between the rulers and the ruled. He thought that best expression of consent to be ruled was through the ballot. Yet only a few propertied men should participate, he said. Rousseau said all democracies should be modeled after the Constitution of the Switzerland of his time. And what did this constitution say? On elections, it excluded black people, slaves, women, the poor and mad people. Only sane, propertied, free male adults were allowed to vote. And the liberal Rousseau thought that this was perfect.

In the 21st century, the merits of this wisdom are in doubt. The exclusion of women and the attempt to create an oligarchy will particularly lead to many problems. Perhaps Rousseau’s coordinates are all faulty. However, the point is not lost. I have often wondered about the wisdom of placing voters’ cards in the hands of a crowd of ignoramuses. It just does not make sense. The United Kingdom (UK) has these past few days reminded us once again about the personification of disaster that is an empty-headed crowd boasting of its numerical superiority. The only certain thing about such a mob is numerical stupidity. Yet virtually everywhere in the world, majoritarian numerical stupidity has carried the day at some point.