ABSTRACT
I now turn to some underlying traits of the human mind that make elections and mass-participation plebiscitary direct democracy untenable. This chapter will present many of the reasons that our brains are not well-suited for elections, and the next chapters will focus on why elected officials are not well-suited for policymaking. These factors disqualify elections as the basic tool of democracy, regardless of voting method or other election reforms. Some of these factors have only come to light since recent advancements in the science of psychology, but many of them have been recognized for eons.
