Politicians in representative democracies are also very aggressive in parliament because they compete daily to create a positive public image. They do it because they hope it will help them win when the next election arrives.
In a representative democracy, politicians have heated arguments, but not because they want the support of the people for a new law or a new policy, they do it because they are thinking of the next election. As the next election is one or more years into the future, the politicians know things might have changed by them. This means that today’s fights are more for the show because they know the people can not change the decisions politicians make.
This excessive power representative democracy gives politicians, also gives them the power to continuously increase their power. Inevitably, such dynamic drives elected politicians progressively away from voters. The result is that in a representative democracy, as time passes, citizens have less and less influence and faith in those who govern. The result is a gradual loss of faith in democracy.
Another terrible effect of the polarization that representative democracy creates among politicians is the polarization of voters.
Because of this polarization, political parties and their followers often resemble fanatical “religions”. Politicians viciously disqualify each other. One consequence of this “religious” thinking is that, at election time particularly, many of the “followers” of each party feel obliged to be “faithful” and thus vote for “their” party no matter what. Even if the party has betrayed them in important promises they made at election time. Politicians know that; this makes it easy for them to forget voters, even their own, once the election is over.
Polarization also leads to uncivil behaviours; from political signs vandalized to street fights, and worse.
Such polarization of politicians and voters makes it very difficult to work cooperatively for the common good. It is almost as if the common good no longer existed; everything seems driven by the constant fighting. This is not very rational and is very inefficient.
One obvious example of the deterioration of representative democracy in the United States. In the US, Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders are the product of the alienation of millions of voters by representative democracy politicians. In other representative democracies, to varying degrees, polarization and alienation are also rising.
In the US, it is the more angry followers of Mr. Sanders, and even more radical politicians, who riot in many cities, want to destroy US history, etc. But if Mr. Trump loses the election, it is conceivable his more angry followers will then also riot, or worse.
The deterioration of democracy in the US is happening despite the many intelligent people in government and also outside. It is as if political polarization has infected many of the “brightest” minds in the nation, it has politicized even business executives.
Another very important effect of direct democracy is that it creates more mature voters. This occurs because voters know they are responsible for what happens in their village and also in the entire nation. Self-responsible people do not need “great leaders” to lead them “out of this valley of tears” to any “promised land”; such concepts make no sense to them. As you might expect, those voters do not fall for demagogues either.
Representative democracy has run its course. We need to turn to direct democracy to ensure political stability, prevent riots and polarization of the people.
