At risk of stating the obvious, representative democracy in no way represents the interests of the silent majority. The majority can't show up in legislature to vote on every single issue. Nor can they bribe politicians to represent majority interests. Given the inherent limit in resources, either a subset of "special interests" can be represented at any given time, or the silent majority can be represented, not both...
Fracking is the perfect example of the majority interests being wholly ignored. Hyraulic fracturing ("fracking") of the earth's crust is neither safe nor sane. It's already a total fucking disaster as I posted recently wherein the occurrence of magnitude 3.0 earthquakes has increased 183x in just six months. Fracking benefits the oil companies and the person who leases their land - all at the expense of the surrounding community. Still, somehow it is now a widespread practice, as the silent majority's interests have been totally subverted by political buffoons who in aggregate have an approval rating of 11%.
Exhibit B: British Columbia Grizzly Bear Trophy Hunt
This is another hideous example. This "industry" at most benefits a few hundred people in a province of 4.4 million. A temporary moratorium on hunting was imposed back in 2001, however, when the new "Liberal" government was installed, the first thing they did was overturn it - that exact same year! Several hundred grizzly bears are trophy hunted in B.C. every year, but no one is even sure how many grizzly bears are even left. Figures vary widely from 6,000 to 18.000. Grizzlies are essentially extinct south of the U.S./Canadian southern border, however, Alaska has a larger population of bears than B.C. It's totally fucking crazy. The average British Columbian gains nothing whatsoever from this entire trophy hunt aside from being constantly excoriated by environmental groups around the world.
At no point in the process of approving fracking or Grizzly bear hunting, were majority interests ever considered. These are total fucking subversions of 'democracy'.
The rights of the majority are implicitly ignored every time a new law is created. No politician has incentive to represent the silent majority. In almost all cases, the rights of the majority would be better represented with fewer and simplified laws, accompanied by improved accountability and fewer exploitable loopholes.
Make-Believe Democracy
The root cause failure of make-believe "democracy", stems from having undereducated, over-confident buffoons who couldn't get real jobs, installed in legislatures and senates, constantly making new rules to benefit their own political benefactors. Somehow, prior generations thrived with a fraction of the laws that we have today, accompanied by a higher level of accountability. As long as lawyers are making the laws, there will always be too many lawyers and too many laws - a fundamental conflict of interest, like asking a barber if you need a haircut. And as long as glassy-eyed buffoons with 11% approval ratings are the "middle-men" to special interest groups, there will be no democracy.
