What’s Wrong with Partisan Deference?

Abstract Deference in politics is often necessary. To answer questions like, “Should the government increase the federal minimum wage?” and “Should the state introduce a vaccine mandate?,” we need to know relevant scientific and economic facts, make complex value judgments, and answer questions about incentives and implementation. Lay citizens typically lack the time, resources, and competence to answer these questions on their own. Hence, they must defer to others. But to whom should they defer? A common answer is that they should—or are at least permitted to—defer to co-partisans. This view initially seems attractive on both normative and empirical grounds. Against this, the author argues that deference to co-partisans has overlooked moral and epistemic problems. In light of them, the author proposes several new ways to revise our expectations of citizens in a democracy, both individually and institutionally.