@Oxymandias
- You seem to be confused. Either polls are binding, then they're not polls, or they're not binding, then they're irrelevant. The reasons, IMO, why polls differ from ballots: There is not public debate preceding the poll and no responsibility or decision-making power comes with it.
- I agree that in reality votes are almost certainly not going to be unbiased, that's a weakness of Condorcet's theorem. That post was descriptive by the way: I do reject the notion of an informed (i.e. objectively correct) vote. Certainly though more information should lead to a better understanding of the consequences (if the information is unbiased).
- As for the voting paradox, I won't comment on that. People obviously derive some utility from voting.
- As for the Swiss cantons. If you haven't noticed, I'm Swiss. I pay federal taxes, the healthcare law is a federal law, I studied at a federal university (though there are also cantonal ones). There's a federal police force, etc. etc. Remember Swiss cantons are tiny.
Regarding education and democracy:
I don't think it's all about (formal) eduction or income. America was a functioning democracy in the 19th century, yet Americans were certainly poorer in those days than Middle Easterners today, and likely less educated.
Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" is a good read in that respect. He tried to explain why democracy succeeded in America and failed in his native France (note in Britain, Germany etc. only an elite had voting rights in the 19th century, see
here for example). Among other things, Tocqueville emphasizes the importance of local government (American townships):
Tocqueville wrote:Yet municipal institutions constitute the strength of free nations. Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people's reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it. A nation may establish a free government, but without municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty. Transient passions, the interests of an hour, or the chance of circumstances may create the external forms of independence, but the despotic tendency which has been driven into the interior of the social system will sooner or later reappear on the surface.
Note that in Switzerland, arguably the only other full and functioning democracy in the 19th century, local government also played an important role (
Landsgemeinde). Begs the question what the future holds when governance becomes more and more globalized/centralized.