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this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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This just isn't true. The majority of democracies around the world today are representative democracies, and people colloquially refer to them simply as democracies.
That's partly true to varying degrees depending on what country you're referring to, but it also isn't that simple. The methods the establishment uses to control who gets party nominations are mostly indirect (i.e. media manipulating the narrative, PACs and dark money to campaigns, etc.). I think you're being overly cynical - which is fair - but we have more power than you think we do, we're just not very good at using it. Cynicism itself is one of the ways that the establishment controls who gets elected.
In short: the establishment has a stranglehold on democracy not because our democracies are fake (flawed, maybe even rigged a bit, sure, but not fake), but because they have us out-organized.
I agree that nearly no countries are direct democracies. But most people don't really know the difference. Just look how many people assume trump was the choice of the majority of americans. They don't know what the elctoral college even does. They think that they are in a direct democrqcy, though they don't know the name.
Cynicisim itself does not mean one doesn't participate in the process. I onow how it work, I know how badly the cards are stacked against me, but I vote anyway. And I read up on the local elections to make an informed decision. But I know that of the few who do vote, the majority don't spend much time reading up on cadadites.
And the establishment wins not because it is better organized, but because it has contol of more money.