But now let us ask whether the people who are chosen to represent them can expected to do any better,taking each element of political judgement in turn.One of the great difficulties that beset political decision-making in contemporary societies is that many judgements require factual information that only those whoare really expert on the subject in question can provide. This is obviously true when scientific matters are at stake,but the same applies in the case of many economic and social issues, where the problem is to determine what are the likely effects of a proposed new law or policy. Would legalizing cannabis increase or decrease the number of those who end up taking heroin and otherhard drugs,for instance? The answer to such questions is far from obvious,and elected politicians andcivil servants in general have no more expertise in answering them than the rest of us.like us,they have to rely on the opinions of those who do have some expertise,and where those opinions differ,they have to make a judgement about who is more reliable.So far,there is no reason to think that an elective aristocracy wil make better judgements than the general public.