Having the citizens police each other, spy on each other is a characteristic of totalitarian regimes, notably present in both communist Eastern Germany and Nazi

Having the citizens police each other, spy on each other is a characteristic of totalitarian regimes, notably present in both communist Eastern Germany and Nazi Germany. A fundamental part of democracy is to trust a citizen by default - not just with voting, but with behaving in general. Before police and courts come into play there needs to be a little leeway, for people to act, make mistakes, see their actions conflicting with the interest of others, to correct themselves etc. Fundamentally, people should be put in a cooperative environment; having a significant part of the population be in "cop mode", looking for offenses, would be very harmful for society.