> I'd rather see a scheme in which the practice of rule is the province of those trained and skilled in that very specialized profession. Arguably that's what

> I'd rather see a scheme in which the practice of rule is the province of those trained and skilled in that very specialized profession. Arguably that's what happens in many places. The UK has a large, non-partisan civil service supporting whichever the government is in power. But we don't let them decide our goals, because democracy is not primarily about choosing which way to solve widely-agreed problems. It's about deciding which things are in fact the problems that need solving. Training and skill are not critical to this. Incompetence and inefficiency are secondary problems, and any attempt to fix them by weakening democracy itself is a dangerous project that puts the cart before the horse.