Why Direct Democracy is Better Than Representative Democracy

History has shown us that democracy is a pretty bad way to organize public affairs. Once established, a democracy has a tendency to expand to include everybody and seduce everybody into believing that they can live at the expense of others. The number of laws and regulations increase, taxes increase, and freedoms become limited.

However, not all democracies are the same. There is direct democracy and there is representative democracy. And one has shown itself to perform much better than the other. Surprisingly to some, it is the direct version that has done the least damage to society.

The idea of representative democracy is that government is a business requiring expertise. Making laws is not something that can be left to the general public. An enlightened elite is a guarantee that laws will be fair and well thought out. Direct democracy, it is claimed, will result in absurd laws and an everybody against everybody mentality.

Interestingly, precisely the opposite appears to be the case. Switzerland where direct democracy is practiced does not have a huge list of absurd laws. Compared to most, if not all, representative democracies, Switzerland is delightfully free of absurd laws and regulations.

As it turns out, the average citizen of Switzerland is not as silly and ignorant as assumed, and the professional politicians we find in representative democracies are not all that enlightened. Professional politicians are quite willing to add a seemingly endless list of silly laws and regulations to the existing law code.

This should not come as a surprise to anyone. The reason professional politicians behave as they do is not because they are stupid, but because they are few. They are easy to corrupt. They quickly think themselves better than others. They think themselves quite fantastic, and they are happy to accept a bribe if they find it reasonable.

Representative democracy is such a miserable failure at solving public issues because it leaves all too much power in the hands of those who suffer no consequence from any wrongdoings. The professional politicians, even if they start out with the best intentions, become corrupt. That does not happen to the individual voter. It is impossible to bribe the direct voter in the same simple manner that it is done to professional politicians in representative democracies.

The direct voter tends to be more skeptical to too much legislation. They tend to vote for sensible laws. They do not benefit from over-regulations. Unlike the professional politician, the direct voter has nothing to gain by making a mess of things.

By Rama - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, Link