Quora Answer: Do the Decisions of Elected Representatives Supersede the Will of the People?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Do the laws, and decisions, of elected representatives, supersede the will of the people?  If so, how is it actually a democracy?”

There is no such thing as a full democracy.  A full democracy is a system where every eligible person votes on every single aspect of governance, including the legislative process.  Considering the large number of people involved, this is both impractical and unwieldy.  This also assumes that every person has the inclination to understand every aspect of every policy.  That is simply not possible.

What countries practice are various forms of representative democracies.  This means that we elect representatives to a legislative body, or parliament.  These elected legislators, or members of parliament, then form the government, appointing people who are supposed to be qualified to make the decisions of government pertaining to their ministry or department of government.  These legislators, as a body, also propose laws, implement them, or strike them from the books.

This does not mean, however, that citizens are entirely divorced from this process.  Many countries have a feedback process where citizens may lobby their representatives to raise issues of concern, or even send feedback direct to the various organs of state.  These may include petitions, lobbying, or actions through no-government organisations.

If we simply allowed anybody and everybody, regardless of their qualities and capabilities, to have a direct say in every aspect of governance, all governments would be in gridlock, and nothing will get done.  Society would devolve into the chaos of some form of idiocracy.