Abstract: In recent years, it has been witnessed an epistemic turn in the study of Western democracy. These studies, on the socalled epistemic democracy, have broken through the mainstream research paradigm of “epistemic abstinence” and begun to focus on the epistemic aspects of democracy, trying to prove the capacity of “the many” to make good decisions and seeking to justify democracy by reference to this capacity. In the nearly forty years since its emergence and development, it has roughly formed relatively mature research paths and models, and has found relatively powerful evidence of the epistemic properties of democracy, which to a certain extent has challenged the antiepistemic concept of democracy that has long existed in Western political theories. In reality, epistemic democracy has also responded to the widespread skepticism about the capacity of democracy in the Western society and thus has been attracting increasing attention, although this theory has always been at odds with the mainstream of democratic theories. In addition, epistemic democracy has also provided important reference and enlightenment for the study of democracy in China. 

Key words: epistemic democracy, governance performance, legitimacy, epistemic competence

摘要： 近些年来，西方民主研究出现了一种所谓的认知转向。这些研究突破了“认知禁欲”的主流研究范式，开始关注民主的认知问题，试图证明多数拥有做出正确决定的能力，并参照这种能力为民主的价值进行辩护，形成了所谓的认知民主。在它产生和发展的近四十年时间内，已经大致形成了较为成熟的研究路径和模型，并对民主的认知属性作出了较为有力的证明，在一定程度上挑战了长期存在于西方政治思想中反认知的民主观念。从现实来看，认知民主也回应了西方社会对民主能力的广泛质疑，因此尽管这一理论目前还没有完全被西方的主流理论所接受，但它正引起越来越多的关注。不仅如此，认知民主也为我国的民主研究提供了重要的借鉴和启发。

关键词: 认知民主, 治理绩效, 合法性, 认知能力