[Torus34]

Democracy, as commonly understood by the average American, is government "of the people, by the people and for the people."* As George Gershwin's song goes, though, "It ain't necessarily so."

First, a definition. Democracy, in this post, is defined as a system of government in which people in the legislative and administrative branches of the government are selected, directly or indirectly, by elections in which ordinary citizens vote. With that out of the way, let's continue.

Let's assume that a legislator wishes to carry out the will of the majority of the people he/she represents. Letters are sent out to the voters. They contain a simple yes/no question: "Should the government increase the amount of money devoted to programs to assist the poor?" The returns were tallied. 70% said yes.

Just to be sure, the same politician sent another set of letters to the same people. The question was: "Should the government increase the amount of money devoted to welfare programs?" Again, the returns were tallied. This time, 30% said yes.

What's the politician's take on the will of the people?

Note. A study was conducted using quite similar questions. The results were similar to the simplified version above.

* Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863.