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[–] Elderberries 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago  (edited ago)

We saw what representative democracy does throughout history. Taking Rome as an example, by the late republic you would be unable to win an election without bribes and connections, except in some rare cases were historians believe connections were enough. Connections in this context meaning essentially drawing upon friends and cliens in the city of Rome and shipping in voters from the towns in Italy in which the politician who wants to win an election has a significant amount of clients). Gaining clients outside of Rome in large amounts could be done in many ways, one of which being advocating for a town being given citizenship and helping them in other ways, or conquest in war during your governorship; as clients they are obliged to vote for you and your son after you.

Bribes in this context would mean literally giving money to voters; which was likely done since the early days of the Republic but became so ridiculously extravagant by the first century BC that many politicians would go into dept so deep in order to bribe enough people to win an election, that if they failed to win their election they would be bankrupt, because they needed their year in high office (as a Praetor, or even higher a Consul) in order to secure a time as governor of a province after their year in office, which they needed in order to extort money from the provincials via tax-farmers so that they could enrich themselves and be able to repay their creditors.

The procedure is different in our day, but the result is the same. Cicero commended the Roman constitution because its ability to keep a stable government of elites while giving the people an illusion of liberty and choice.