Quote Originally Posted by Kadagar_AV

I can take myself as example. I am clearly smarter than the average joe (you might disagree, but humor me please), and I do believe I take more interest in politics than the average citizen. I read up, check sources and so on. But heck, I can in NO way in hell know if Sweden gains from being part of the EU, if social security is more important than more jobs and so on.

And if I cant say for sure, how would less able and interested people have a clue?

This is why there are no functioning democracies in the world, only republics. We elect people who make it their job to know the specificities of government. They give us a general outline of their politics by proclaiming allegiances such as liberal or conservative and by taking stances on hotbutton issues of the day, and from those indicators and others(speaking ability, real or perceived intelligence, charisma, ect.), we chose who we believe will do the best job. If said person does not deliver on what (s)he promised, or led us to believe, (s)he is voted out.


What nonsense. The main argument in favour of democracy - indeed, some would say the only one - is that it is preferable to the alternatives.
Not all the alternatives.