I disagree with how you split the two options. For example, the minorities can also be oppressed by technocracy (imagine university-educated Nazis planning the Final Solution), perhaps even more on average, because if they have 10% of the popular vote, it is probably closer to 0% among the technocracy.
(You may assume the technocracy is enlightened and benevolent, but if we go this way, why not simply assume an enlightened and benevolent dictator?)
An orthogonal approach is to consider the units of governance. Are the rules uniform for the whole country, or does each region decide for themselves? Regardless of whether the region uses the local populus, or the local technocrats… or could we go even more meta and assume that even the “populus or technocrats” question is answered differently in different regions?
An advantage of smaller regions is that you can try many things in paralell and see what works better. A disadvantage is that some regions might make very bad choices. (Greater variance means both much better and much worse outcomes than the average.) But the bad choice will not ruin the entire country. Some selfishness may be involved, for example regions in the middle of the country less willing to contribute to protection of borders. Also, there seems to be natural pressure towards centralization (see how USA evolved from “the federal government has only those powers specifically granted by the Constitution” to people acting as if the choice of President changes everything).
Have you read the articles about Swiss democracy? (1, 2, 3)
I disagree with how you split the two options. For example, the minorities can also be oppressed by technocracy (imagine university-educated Nazis planning the Final Solution), perhaps even more on average, because if they have 10% of the popular vote, it is probably closer to 0% among the technocracy.
(You may assume the technocracy is enlightened and benevolent, but if we go this way, why not simply assume an enlightened and benevolent dictator?)
An orthogonal approach is to consider the units of governance. Are the rules uniform for the whole country, or does each region decide for themselves? Regardless of whether the region uses the local populus, or the local technocrats… or could we go even more meta and assume that even the “populus or technocrats” question is answered differently in different regions?
An advantage of smaller regions is that you can try many things in paralell and see what works better. A disadvantage is that some regions might make very bad choices. (Greater variance means both much better and much worse outcomes than the average.) But the bad choice will not ruin the entire country. Some selfishness may be involved, for example regions in the middle of the country less willing to contribute to protection of borders. Also, there seems to be natural pressure towards centralization (see how USA evolved from “the federal government has only those powers specifically granted by the Constitution” to people acting as if the choice of President changes everything).
Have you read the articles about Swiss democracy? (1, 2, 3)