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April 18th, 1999. "The Political Class." We do not have in this country a class of people with a sufficient depth and breadth of intelligence who would be willing to run the country (assuming that the business of running a country could ever be accomplish by a conscious process); it is likely we never will. (This, in itself is a good reason for restricting government power to the barest of minimums.) Assuming that there are such people to be found in the nooks and crannies of this country, the "democratic system" is wholly inadequate in throwing such people up into positions of political power. Democracy is the rule by or the dominion of the people over the people. As a practical matter the masses cannot be called together to set and enforce the rules. Direct democracy, while tried in certain small republics of antiquity, is not what any modern democratic state has in place; the people, like shareholders in a company, elect officers to do the job of governing. This is known as representative democracy; and it is the art of politics that advances persons into these representative positions. This art of politics is wholly contrary to the art of government. The object of the politician is to get himself or herself elected, next time around: the process they involve themselves in has little to do with the overall welfare of the state. For further, see blupete's essays: "On Democracy" "On Government" [Top] [Archives] [To Blupete's Essays] [Thoughts & Quotes of blupete] [Home] Peter Landry April, 1999 (2019)