[cstross]

No, representative democracy does not give us freedom.

All representative democracy give us is the ability, collectively, to sack a government that has outlived its welcome for some reason. (What happens after that is a complete crap shoot.)

When opposition parties start to triangulate -- that is, to define their policies in terms of what the government and perceived extreme opposite are doing -- rather than by espousing a concrete ideology or policy platform, we end up with everything converging on one dominant faction's idea of how to do things: a one party state in all but name.

(Which seems to be where we are here in the UK right now, and to a lesser extent in the USA.)

[Shorel]

OK, let's say for your sake: democracy gives us some limited freedoms, that almost all other forms of government take away.

It's not in the definition of autocracy that you should self censor if you live in one. In reality, it is just a given.

Same for theocracy, etc. And there are countless other freedoms taken away in these other government systems.

Also, I don't want you to have total, unrestricted freedom. I don't want you to have the freedom to harm me without consequences =)

So, limited ability to sack a government, and freedom of association, and freedom of commerce are good enough for me, from a practical point of view.