Democracy: overrated, or underrated?

@Milkshake But don't you think the most important questions are not just a matter of expertise, but also of preference? For example, there is no one "best" tax rate or "correct" level of environmental protection... even the most intelligent and well-informed people will differ on these questions because their values and priorities will differ. Why would favoring the preferences of a small group of people be preferable to asking the public? And who will choose the decision-makers, and on what basis?

@DianaKay because reason and compromising has disappeared...

for example.. build a wall to mexico and at the same time ban all guns.

or make huge efforts to stop global warming and ban abortions at the same time.

there you go.. compromises... you can do that with a few people but not enraged masses

@Milkshake In theory, representative democracy does allow for compromise because complicated questions are not put directly to the public; instead we choose the people who will work out the details. I agree with you that something seems to be going wrong right now, and that we're gravitating toward extreme and simplistic solutions. We're choosing the wrong people, and once they're in office they're driven by the wrong incentives. My fix would not be to scrap democracy altogether, but try and identify and correct what's going wrong in the culture which is producing so much polarization. Easier said than done, however...