A Defense of Uninformed Voting,

the Ideal in Republics

Here I defend the uninformed voter and demonstrate that the modern vote should not be decided by individual policy issues. Critics of democracy correctly argue that individuals are unable to understand technical information required for all political decisions. However, in pure democracy, voters are expected to judge expert opinions rather than interpret information themselves. This makes voting a second-order decision. Then, critics may reasonably claim that the layman cannot hold the information necessary to judge expert opinion on all matters. However, voting in a democratic republic is a third order decision. Voters need only select a representative with good judgement rather than judge expert opinion. I develop a frame for candidate evaluation and suggest methods of reorienting public depictions of candidates, campaign policy, and civic education to better fit the citizen's goal in voting. I suggest empirical investigation of the layperson's ability to assess judgement and motivations behind candidate selection and approval ratings. I conclude by discussing this model relative to normative arguments for leader selection in different political systems.