> I'd be much more trusting of democracy or even representative democracy if the demos had a real say The Swiss do a much better job of this! There the people

> I'd be much more trusting of democracy or even representative democracy if the demos had a real say The Swiss do a much better job of this! There the people can petition for a referendum to add or delete any law or amend the constitution. They can do this at the municipal, canton (state) or federal level. The result is that politicians know that they need to negotiate with motivated minorities. The people have a veto over the politicians.