Geniocracy
From Free net encyclopedia
Geniocracy is a system of government proposed by the Raëlian movement, that is designed to select for intelligence. The term geniocracy comes from the word 'Genius' and proposes a system that is designed to select for intelligence as the primary factor for governance. While having a democratic electoral apparatus, it differs from traditional liberal democracy by instead suggesting that both candidates for office and the body electorate should meet a certain minimal criterion of intelligence. The thresholds proposed by the Raëlians are 50% above the average mean for an electoral candidate and 10% above the average mean for an elector.
This method of selectivity is deliberate so as to address what the concept considers to be flaws in the current systems of democracy. The primary of this being the inability for majoritarian consensus to provide a reasonable platform for intelligent decision making. Geniocracy's criticism of this system is that the institutions of democracy become more concerned with appealing to popular consensus through emotive issues then they are in making long-term critical decisions, especially those that may involve issues not immediately relevant to the electorate. It asserts that political mandate is something far too important to simply leave to popularity, and asserts that the critical decision making required for government, especially in a world of Globalisation cannot be based on criteria of emotive or popular decision making. In this respect, Geniocracy derides Liberal Democracy as a form of "Mediocracy".
Part of the Geniocratic agenda is to purport the idea of a World Government system, deriding the current state-system as inadequate for dealing with contemporary global issues that are typical of Globalisation, such as Environmentalism, Social Justice, Human Rights, and the current economic system. In line with this, Geniocracy proposes a different economic model called Humanitarianism (Economic).
As a response to its controversial attitudes about selectivity one of the more general responses is to point out that Universal suffrage, the current system, already discriminates to some degree and varyingly in different countries, in who is allowed to vote. Primarily against minors, incarcerated felons, and the mentally incapacitated. This is on the basis that their ability to contribute to the decision making process is either flawed or invalid for the purpose of the society.
The current difficulty in the ideas of Geniocracy is that the means of assessing intelligence are ill-defined. Standard measures of testing (such as IQ) are considered inadequate for the purposes of testing for Geniocracy, as they only measure a very small part of a subject's intelligence. Other components deemed necessary for a more rounded understanding of intelligence include concepts like Emotional Intelligence. As such, Geniocracy's validity cannot really be assessed until better and more objective methods of intelligence assessment are made available.