ABSTRACT
Hayek argued that there are mechanisms at work in certain domains of society that facilitate the making of successful action plans in these domains. Unfortunately, existing democratic mechanisms serve this epistemic function poorly. The epistemic-mechanistic approach to the problem of policymaker ignorance investigates, theoretically and empirically, various mechanisms that might serve to coordinate the knowledge of policymakers and constituents. Such mechanisms would facilitate the making of successful plans of political action by members of both groups of political actors and thereby encourage a tendency toward orderly political decision-making.
