Personally I think democracy will evolve into something or die. Democracy works up until the masses start voting themselves bread and circuses... withness Athens.
Democracy works up until the point where it is not feasible for the clear majority of citizens to consider and vote upon the actions to be taken relative to all major issues. Up until that point, folk tend to be relatively satisfied with government courses of action even if it is not the one they would have chosen because they know that they had their say and they could clearly SEE that most of the citizens did not see it their way. Then they have powerful reason to reconsider if all their (reasonably well-known and respected) neighbors could all be wrong, or at least to thouroughly understand that they weren't going change the general attitude.
Democracy has evolved into something, to cope with the fact that we can't all be involved in every issue, because our culture has grown too big and complex...Representative democracy, or the democratic republic. The system where you elect your best take on a well-informed and wise representative, and have him/her do the actual representation of your interests in the final consideration of issues and voting on course of action.
One of the strengths of Representaive Democracy is that purpose-dedicated solons can take a somewhat longer, more considered view of issues and actions, and avoid (somewhat) passions-of-the-the-moment decisons...bread and circuses.
However, the great weakness of representative democracy is that it is easy for factions and individuals in opposition to convince themselves that the essential truth of their viewpoint has been overlooked in the layering of the repersentative process. They haven't SEEN the 'true polling' of the populace and there is a tendency to believe their view is either REALLY held by the majority that just haven't realized it yet, or that it would be so held if it was just explained / demonstrated better, or better yet, attempted. Its hard to believe that all those people that you HAVEN'T SEEN or argued with at the 'town meeting' REALLY DO disagree with you. So in representative democracy there tends to always be an group of minority factions nurturing righteous dissatisfaction, even if the nation / culture in general is quite satisfied with how things are going.
drrider
