This is how democracy works
Representative democracy is not direct democracy. People don’t meet in the agora. They elect representatives, who aren’t “just people.” They are party members. We cannot have parliaments where people, not parties, decide on laws and validate a government. In most countries, even coalitions are difficult to form, because cupid and stupid politicians cannot cooperate. They’re rapacious, egotistic, and unable to pursue any “win-win” strategy. To them, everything must be a zero-sum game.
So the official dogma is that a party must represent you, the citizen. You vote for someone to represent you, but when it’s time to vote in a parliament’s chamber, that representative won’t have a free conscience; they’ll also have orders from party leaders. So who is representing that Abgeordneter: you, or a party’s boss?
But this is democracy, they say. Direct democracy episodes that can happen through referendums are severely restricted. In many countries, the Constitution forbids referendums initiated by popular initiatives to decide on fiscal topics or mass amnesties. This cannot come from the hoi polloi. Only your rulers—sorry, I mean your representatives—can decide what you can and cannot possibly want.
Also, note that politicians are very keen to represent you. If they really served the country and the public interest, their job would be an ordeal, and people would have avoided it at all costs. As long as they precipitate like bears to a honeypot, it can only mean that—of course, this cannot be; they’re not corrupted en masse.
But this is how democracy works, and you, the voter, the citizen endowed with natural and constitutional rights, are exercising your democratic right to vote.
I believe this old artifact depicts you perfectly.
