Quite the novel proposal. I’m trying to wrap my head around it. The devil is in the details I suppose. Perhaps you elaborate in your book, but I can imagine quite the controversy around who writes the tests, what level of competence is required, how they’re administered, how to prevent the tests from being politicized/gerrymandered, options for retest, appeals and protests, and all the bureaucracy necessary to maintain this voting structure.

The idea is certainly appealing to me from the Plato philosopher-king point of view, but of course, that’s the inherent bias that we think we have special insight and cognition compared to the hoi-polloi. While I may (no so) secretly believe this, I also know that the highly educated can also be as recalcitrant and obstinate in the face of new information as anybody, probably more so, because they think they know more than the rest.

Has anybody else proposed this or is this your original idea?