[cykros]

Each layer of abstraction takes away choice in this model, and is indeed why Republics have Constitutions, among other reasons. The scope elected officials have is frankly too grand, resulting in positions where one wants to restrict your freedoms and lower taxes, and another wants to restrict your freedoms and raise taxes, and in many cases, the freedoms they want to restrict are the same freedoms -- and then when those freedoms of course are restricted, it's the "people" who voted for it!

And then to have elected officials that are elected by people who got in this way in the first place adds a whole layer of not having the interests of the public in mind.

Is it democratic, the way we normally think of the meaning of that word these days? Sure. Is it something we should take comfort in because of that fact? Personally, I lean toward "no."

Illusion of choice does a lot to pacify a population against tyranny, and the authoritarians are well aware of that fact after the last century or so.