>Meanwhile I doubt even 5% of the electorate actually cares about this. //
Representational democracy is supposed to work around the problem of an uninformed electorate. The question should be "if a member of the electorate understood this situation well enough would they care", representatives are supposed to use subject experts to help them answer that question and then use their political expertise to implement laws that move us towards a solution.
It's a big ask, and it doesn't work that well -- politicians often work at what will win them plaudits in the press (or what can be presented as a win, if they control the press), rather than actually doing their job.
Fundamentally though "the electorate doesn't care" is the wrong measure, there are a million things the electorate don't care about but would care about if they had the situation presented to them fully ... we pay representatives and advisors so we don't have to care directly ... that's supposed to be how it works.
Representational democracy is supposed to work around the problem of an uninformed electorate. The question should be "if a member of the electorate understood this situation well enough would they care", representatives are supposed to use subject experts to help them answer that question and then use their political expertise to implement laws that move us towards a solution.
It's a big ask, and it doesn't work that well -- politicians often work at what will win them plaudits in the press (or what can be presented as a win, if they control the press), rather than actually doing their job.
Fundamentally though "the electorate doesn't care" is the wrong measure, there are a million things the electorate don't care about but would care about if they had the situation presented to them fully ... we pay representatives and advisors so we don't have to care directly ... that's supposed to be how it works.