How much of the benefit of living in a democracy is in the small influences that voters occasionally manage to exert on the political process? And how much of that benefit is from power-wielders being too scared to act like historical kings and slaughter you on a whim?
Arguably, the chief historical improvements in living conditions have not been from voters having the influence to pass legislation which (they think) will benefit them, but, rather, from power-wielders becoming scared of doing anything too horrible to voters. Maybe one retrodiction (I haven’t checked) would be that if you looked at the history of England, you would find a smooth improvement in living conditions corresponding to a gradually more plausible threat of revolution, rather than a sharp jump following the introduction of an elected legislature.
This debate is the main reason that I’m fascinated by post-democratic ideas, but dial my skepticism up to 11 with regards to their real-world consequences.
I think these are important points, but an important counterpoint is the subject of The American System and Misleading Labels:
This debate is the main reason that I’m fascinated by post-democratic ideas, but dial my skepticism up to 11 with regards to their real-world consequences.