Does Diversity Trump Ability?

The idea that diverse groups of ordinary citizens will "outperform" expert panels has become something of a totemic conviction in democratic theory.The "diversity trumps ability" (DTA) theorem, first formulated by the economists Lu Hong and Scott E. Page (2004), asserts that under certain conditions, diverse assemblies will find better solutions to complex problems than homogeneous groups of the best experts.This result has been taken up with much enthusiasm by political theorists, some of whom have taken it to prove the epistemic supremacy of democratic decision-making over its competitors (Landemore 2013).