Two Views of DemocracyMike Rappaport

David Friedman has an interesting post on the incentive theory of democracy and the selection theory of democracy. 

The incentive version relies on the fact that politicians want to getelected and reelected. To get elected, they have to support thepolicies that a majority of the voters want; to get elected again, theyhave to actually work for those policies. Hence, it is argued, it is inthe interest of politicians to do what the voters want them to do,whatever the private beliefs and objectives –other than election–ofthe politicians may be.

The selection model relies on the factsthat people differ and that we have some ability to tell what otherpeople are like. Some candidates are good people who want goodthings–the welfare of their fellow citizens, justice, peace, … . Ifthe voters can identify the good politicians, they can elect them andrely on the benevolent desires of those politicians to motivate them todo the right thing. Some candidates are not only good people but smartand hard working, hence likely to take the acts that produce those goodthings.

I actually believe that both of these theories capture part of what is going on.  Unfortunately, neither the incentive nor the selection effect works very well at generating desirable results. But both seem necessary to producing the limited good that democracy seems to produce. 

Do read the entire post.