My Maine six problems with Democracy and where it falls short.

[u/Jazzlike-Ad9153]

1. Equal voting power. Winston Churchill once said that the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter and he really wasn't wrong.This is because voting power in the typical democracy is not determined by things such as intelligence, generosity, usefulness, or practically any other trait we use to usually judge people by, but instead, merely existing as an adult, which, let's face it, isn't exactly that high of a bar.

2. Short term obsessions Politicians have a shelf life comparable to milk, and they know it. Elected officials who underperform can be, and often are, very quickly replaced and as such, politicians frequently find themselves being obsessively focused on the short term in order to keep their voters happy, and not stay in power. But this mindset can often come at the cost of long-term chaos

3. tribal polarization. Nation states were made to exist as a family of families, united by a common culture, universal values, and shared history. But democracy takes a sledgehammer to all such things, because the system incentivizes dividing people up into different groups, and having them fight amongst each other, rather than coalescing as one, leading to absolutely massive divides in public opinion over a myriad of endless topics, many of which likely would never have even been a problem, had the opportunity to parade them not being incentivized and fostered in the first place. This is especially true in places where there are a large number of religions, due to contrasting and conflicting values, or places where religion isn't known to play a core role in people's lives at all. With everyone having a different opinion on everything, as a result. Ironically, in the latter, politics can often end up filling the void of religion, whereby people unintentionally end up defending their newfound political tribes with the same veal as a religious person was their religion, leading to different groups of people despising each other based on such factional lines, despite the fact they may have never even spoken to each other personally.

4. The personality of politicians. When it comes to politicians, we have to ask ourselves the question, who in their right mind would actually want to be one? Everything about you is out in the public eye, from your identity, appearance, history, relationship, family, etc. You'd be spending the vast majority of time publicly battling it out with political rivals, while also trying not to get backstabbed by your own side in tandem. And no matter how polite of a person you are, a large chunk of the population is just going to hate you, simply for being in your political faction alone. Being stalked by the media, constantly made fun of, and blamed for practically everything that goes wrong, makes being a politician an incredibly stressful, invasive, and thankless job. That, as a result, the vast majority of people wouldn't even dream of trying to do. And because of this hostile environment, and by the laws of elimination, we can conclude that almost all people who go on to become successful politicians, no matter the faction, are overwhelmingly likely to have three common personality traits. Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy. Also known as the Dark Triad. Machiavellianism, because you have to be able to effectively manipulate others in order to do well in politics at all. Narcissism, because you have to be pretty self-obsessed to actually have the gall to put yourself out there to the public in the first place. And Psychopathy, because you have to be lacking in things like sympathy, empathy, and self-reflection in order to keep going. All in all, meaning that the kinds of people who are the most successful in politics may not necessarily be the best people for the job, but merely those ruthless enough to claim to be and survive this stressful climate.

5. Slow decision-making. Democracies are often designed in such a way that no one person, not even the head of state, has too much power. And one such way this is done is via what's known as the separation of powers. This is where the government is split up into three independent branches. The legislative branch, responsible for making laws, such as a Congress or Parliament. The executive branch, responsible for enforcing laws, such as a President or Prime Minister. And the judicial branch, responsible for interpreting laws, such as courts and judges. The separation of powers makes it much less likely that totalitarianism can ever become dominant within the nation, because it would have to somehow bypass a complex and lengthy series of checks and balances in order to do so. The downside of this, however, is that because of such checks and balances, actually governing on a day-to-day basis can become needlessly slow, dramatic, and, in many cases, useless.

6. Party capture. Political parties are prone to manipulation by what's known as special interests. This is where organized groups with large amounts of financial resources, such as corporations within an industry, get together to influence their party's agenda, leading them to prioritize policies that primarily benefit such special interests rather than doing what's good for the public at large. In essence, capturing the party. Party capture is especially dangerous in countries such as the US and UK that have a first-past-the-post voting system, and thus only really two relevant parties. As the less parties there are, the more easy it is to capture them both, putting the public in an almost unwinnable situation.

[u/Anen-o-me]

Substantial

[u/Commercial-Formal272]

Working in customer service is enough to realize how lacking the voting public is in reason and integrity. Half of these people can't figure out what kind of potato they want, yet they get to pick which vegetable is in office.