Which is exactly why a liberally (small 'L') educated population is so critically important to the functioning of a representative government.

This doesn't quite follow... The objection I thought of is that if you have a populace where most members believe they know a subject well enough, perhaps because they "went over the fundamentals for a couple weeks in a college course", actual experts are less able to influence policy in an actually effective way since "everyone is an expert" and there will be disagreements; people won't see their ignorance as mountainous but merely as "a weekend of study would catch me up". There are plenty of good arguments for a broadly-but-shallowly educated populace, but I don't think this is really one of them.

The idea behind a liberal education isn't to get students to believe that they can understand a topic because they "went over the fundamentals for a few weeks in college". It's to get them to be able to rationally discuss the topic with someone who is an expert.

My wife tells a story about a business class she took in undergrad. It was about markets and investing for non-business majors. The professor started out very clearly by explaining that the class was not going to make them financial geniuses - that it would not make them all millionaires. But, that it would help them make better decision so they could understand what the recommendations of their financial planners.

In undergrad, I took a course on the "international political economy" (on of my favorites too - Thanks Dr. Katz). Now, I don't think that means I'd be equipped to negotiate a treaty, but it does help me follow international events with a bit more context.

Do you think we should get rid of Wikipedia, so people don't spend a few hours reading about topics, lest they start to think they are experts?

I guess it depends whether the oft-cited Dunning Kruger is linear. i.e. does a little knowledge of a subject allow you to understand how incomplete your knowledge is?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Sure, nothing is ever perfect. But think about the alternative. How do uneducated people know which "experts" to trust? The term "snake oil salesman" came from somewhere...

Learning a little about your car can help keep you from getting ripped off by a crooked mechanic. So why wouldn't learning a little about the world help keep you from getting ripped off by political leaders and other public figures?

Exactly.