Modern democracy, for reasons of efficiency and feasibility, is representative democracy, which involves a division between rulers and ruled. The rulers are officials who are drawn from - to be realistic - a governing class consisting of ambitious, determined, and charismatic seekers of power, and the role of the citizenry is to vote candidates for officialdom in and out of office on the basis of their perceived leadership qualities and policy preferences. [link]
As gratified as I am that a hard headed realist like Posner is willing to admit that there's such a thing as a
Geez.
Posted by: Zwichenzug on Mar 31, 04 | 3:06 am
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Posner's statement can be applied as-is to things such as local school board elections. If he had said 'ambitious, determined, charasmatic, and rich,' as you would have preferred I suppose, it would only apply to the state and national levels.
Posted by: The Bellman on Mar 31, 04 | 8:25 am
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I'm a big fan of local politics. I even go to city council meetings from time to time. Believe it or not, I most often agree with Republicans when they argue in favor of local control.
Further, I think that a lot of the real power in the U.S. is held by professional bureaucrats. 'Ambitious, determined, and charismatic' describes Richard Clarke pretty well.
Still, it's naive to talk about class and not talk about wealth, race, and gender. Posner only leaves room for a defense by writing 'governing' instead of 'ruling.'
Posted by: Zwichenzug on Mar 31, 04 | 1:15 pm
