Democracy is a great form of government–but it doesn’t work for the reasons that most people seem to think it works. There is no inherent wisdom of the people; in fact, the people are pretty dumb most of the time. Study after study has been done indicating that most people have no clue where the candidates or parties actually stand on the issues that matter the most to them. Instead, democracy works because of the process itself. Citizens believe that they have a say in the system, thereby increasing the legitimacy of government policy and reducing the chances of potentially violent anti-governmental behavior (crime, riots, etc.). Opposition elites (that is those people who want to run government but aren’t currently running government) have a reason to play by the rules because they can do so and still achieve their goals. And the people in power buy into the myth of the power of the people enough to reign in some of their more outlandish ideas.
The thing is, all of those things only apply to the highest offices in the land. There are strong reasons to Democratically elect presidents, congressmen, governors, etc. But when it comes to lower level offices, and most especially particular acts of policy, those decisions are better off left with people who actually have some chance of knowing what they are doing. Leaving those decisions up to the people is unnecessarily playing dice with important decisions.
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