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¿Question #1594?
ejmowrer: Do you think that in todays day and age a true democracy can work, or do we still need to elect representatives to vote on our behalf and protect us from ourselves?

RealGuest: Neither will work unless we also enlist the aid of a higher power than ourselves
Phil Fleischmann: It depends on the size of the nation. 1000 people, sure. 10,000 people, maybe. >1,000,000 people, nope.
BOBBYCAN: The evil alien space robots will enjoy discussing this with you.
Maximuss: There is no true democracy. I'm not so sure that Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle isn't far from the mark.
Woelf: There are far too many stupid people running around for a true democracy to ever work.
crsluggo: A true democracy is a very cumbersome form of government. If you think that the current government system is slow, just imagine having to get everybodies vote on items such as the budget or military action.
bcooperok: We should definitely abolish reprentative democracy. But, maybe we shouldn't allow everyone to vote. I figure if you voted for Bush once, and the country goes to hell in a handbasket, you revoke the right to your next vote.
Felimid: If enough humans could become grown-ups instead of overgrown babies, then true democracy has a chance. Otherwise, forget it.
jp21763: Maybe, but most Representatives protect only themselves anyway.
ricardofo: To me, the better is a true democracy
Harkonnen13: Tough question. A true democracy sure would be nice.
jteslow: Not to protect us, but to save us time and effort.
LilRed: a true democracy will never work
Chris Page: I'll answer that after I'm done reading about today's celebrity gossip.
diemacher: Either works
Mike McCall: Do the representatives change our votes?
themagni: Have you heard of "Canada"? It's also known as "America Done Right".
DHEK: Yes, a true democracy can work.
aleo09: yes
Grungydan: Tough one. I think there are many in the population that I am glad to be protected from, but I'm not always pleased with who is doing the protecting and why.
mindea: a democratic republic is the best system
dmn1414: I guess it could work in boardgamegeek-land once we figured out the rules and winning-strategies
nerotora: Democracy needs to be altered and improved in substantial ways.
Lawrence Hung: Still the representatives. It would be too costly and time-consuming to practice total democracy in the Greek strictest sense in full time.
orodreth: True Democracy is Anarchy. Not bad at all, just very slow moving.
interhawk: The apathy of the many would allow for much abuse of power
SparkValor: A true democracy can work with not to much people. (less then a few thousand)
vampywife: I think we still need representatives, but we also need citizens who will try harder to learn about the candidates before electing them. There are too many folks in Congress nowadays that don't have our best interests at heart, but we keep them in there for fear of change.
bigbadsteve: i think there are too many people and too many idiots for a true democracy to work
brainrob: In a "true" democracy we wouldn't have any time to live our lives. Electing representatives, while not ideal, is an efficient approach. They do need to be fully accountable, though.
DS615: Frankly, people are too ignorant and too easily swayed for a true democracy to work.
dietevil: A true democracy can only work in very small communities.
miyazakigrognard: Green! No, blue!
Loquutus: The latter. You cannot trust a group of people to act in their own best interest.
mrspank: Representative government. Take a look at California's prop laws over the past 25 years or so and you'll agree.
Karlsen: Representatives
ZombyDawg: I prefer a republic over mob rule.
javelin98: There are too many people for direct democracy to work.\
scubadawg1: Depends on the level of government as well as the will of the people to be involved. I'd say no, though, since most people seemed too wrapped up in their personal existence to look beyond it.
tsierra: True democracy to function well needs a populace of educated people... in the US we cannot think of limiting political involvement only to the educated few. Representative gov't only way to go in the short term.
Null Signature: oh god protect me from them. please!
skrutsch: both
MGoddess: nope
kevinfelker42: Less is more, I don't like politicians. I just think there's too much waste and inefficiency in American government, and people have too many rights to sue over anything.
kytmuisco: A true democracy will never work because of Man's fallen nature.
Legend Dan: You're fooling yourself. We live in a dictatorship.
ValJor: Second option, unfortunately
jellospike: People are stupid; but politicians are people.
pedrolisboa: True representative democracy
scriptorum: I've never seen anyone try a true democracy, but if you can get a country to switch over just for our own curiosity sake, that would be awesome.
ssmooth: I think you've got the shoe on the wrong foot. The question is whether the government in power -- hardly "representatives" in any real sense -- could ever be persuaded to get out of the way and let the people or anybody else run things.
deadkenny: Can't work, need reps
BengalBandit: Never will a true democracy work. We need representation.
AWildEep: no. this country is full of dumb people.
Belash: i think we are getting closer to being able to have a true democracy. Votes can be held on the internet... see how well it works here? :)
davidme: Works to some extent, don't "need" anything.
heli: reps
Gecko23: I think the direct democracy idea is much more susceptible to manipulation by minority interests, and therefor a bad direction to take.
Randy Cox: True democracy would bog down into something like GeekQuestions where nothing productive ever happens, but you get a lot of opinions as to what should happen if we ever had the time to do anything.
Lord_Prussian: The latter
MisterCranky: True democracy can never work. Management by committee invariably sucks.
reddogfive: sigh
snoozefest: reps; but that doesn't work either
Windopaene: Direct Democracy is a nice idea, but I don't think it would work. Not that our current system is working very well but...
nexttothemoon: Free and open democracy can still work as long as only truly intelligent people like me are allowed to vote.
toulouse: still need to elect them. California is in a mess 'cause people are idiots.
HappyProle: I think we need representatives; i mean, the public can't even vote well for American Idol.
thoia: Politically motivated question...funny I play board games to try and get away from topics such as this.
djlg: Err, neither of those options. (Typical biased question asking to choose between an apple and an orange when peaches are available.)
2amp: democracy can work if done right
puffinge: We will always need to be protected from ourselves.
Wintergoblin: A true democracy would work
kennyb: I think we need representatives to vote on our behalf because most people dont have the time or desire to be educated on all the issues
yossarians: don't even get me started
RaDiKal: We're mostly idiots (did you get a load of the rants from the last US election)
SevenSpirits: Any kind of government will work fine if everyone is well educated, people are brainwashed into being nice to everyone else and we kill anyone who doesn't agree.
DenverWolf: All I can say is that I'd sure like give the true democracy a spin. Let's see.
AlorielLelyn: Protect us from ourselves...but we need to protect us from our representatives too
shippert: Sure it can work, if we just throw all those red staters in jail.
gnomehome: There never was a true democracy.
chaddyboy_2000: I don't care.
UhhhClem: Go back and read Madison's essay #10 from the Federalist Papers.
tragicpoet: No, because the people chosen as president don't win
CortexBomb: I think true democracy could work, but that it won't because people are defeatist. Technology offers up a lot of options
ynnen: Empowered population does not equal enlightened population. We need democracy, lest the lunatics run the asylum
CDRodeffer: I don't have time to vote on every little thing, so representation is necessary. But corruption is rampant.
Blackwind: People are too stupid to govern themselves, we need represenatives.
louiseh: We need representatives because the vast majority of people have neither the time nor inclination to scrutinise potential legislation or consider the long term consequences. How well our representatives do that is a different matter...
jttm: Doesn't work
skelebone: True democracy is a full-time job for all of the citizens, so representative democracy is probably still our best course, but your question is a bit loaded.