It is not just that, as is often said, government has failed to provide what the people want. The point is that, everywhere, ordinary people are now in a better position to examine what their representatives are up to, observe their errors, smirk or snarl about their sexual and financial peccadillos, and wonder whether it is really a good idea to let such a collection do so much of the business of politics. This is democracy' s vulnerability to lobbyists. Lobbying goes wrong when special interests use their money to cross the line between persuading politicians and buying them. When the lobbyist faces an entire electorate, on the other hand, bribery and vote-buying are virtually impossible.
Nobody has enough money to bribe everybody.
It is true that rich propagandists, even though they cannot bribe the mass of voters, can gull them into taking foolish decisions. It has happened, spectacularly, more than once in California. But the nervous can take heart from the record of Switzerland, which has long put most of its big decisions to the vote of the whole people. The Swiss have developed an admirable ability to resist the blandishments of both Big Money and cheap emotion. In particular, the fear that special interests will use direct democracy to get themselves budget-busting goodies should be eased by the fact that Switzerland has not only a tolerable budget deficit but also one of the rich world's smaller public debts.