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This is a well known result of public choice theory.

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html

Well, maybe this is not well known enough, because school civics lessons usually don't teach this. I'll refrain from speculating about what interest groups might be influencing the school curriculum.

As Winston Churchill said, "Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill

Or as James Madison put it, "But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions."

http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa51.htm

If it really becomes impossible for people to operate legitimate, opinion-promoting websites (as contrasted with copyright-infringing websites, which I don't operate), then the way out of the problem is the same as it has always been, people power.

http://www.aeinstein.org/organizations98ce.html



Well, there are many truly democratic systems that nobody has tried yet. For instance a system where any citizen can vote on any issue. To prevent the tyranny of the majority, there can be rules set up. A system where people decide where their taxes go, how much to spend on healthcare, science, education, warfare.


Initiative and referendum

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Initiative_and_referen...

are old ideas of the Progressive movement of a century ago, and they are blamed by some observers for the mess that California is now in.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2489519


Other states have ballot / referendum and are doing pretty good. California is more a case study in "voting money to groups to elect me to vote for more money".


Illinois is in an even worse mess and they don't have initiatives.


absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.


California is nothing like what I described.




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