This letter written by the hyperactive Don Boudreaux suggests an explanation of why democracy seems so difficult to get going, and why all attempts to impose it seem to fail.
Boudreaux writes:
Mr. Stephens is mistaken. Democracy neither brings modernity nor is an essential element of it. The fountainhead of the western freedoms and institutions that Mr. Stephens rightly admires was the fractured and overlapping jurisdictions that emerged in western Europe following the collapse of the Roman empire. The happy, if unintended, result was an inability of any one authority (say, a prince or a pope) to exercise complete sovereignty over the populace. From this fractured sovereignty the rights of man slowly sprung, and only much later did democracy as we know it develop.
I am no historian, but this explanation seems promising. It is quite clear how those in power will never willingly give it away. In the UK we have the perennial spectacle of the opposition party promising to reform the electoral system whenever they are out of power, only to think better of this once they seize the reins of power whereupon reform suddenly seems altogether less urgent. In the same way, referenda, promised while in opposition, suddenly are undemocratic as they might bind the hand of a 'democratically' elected government.
Libertarians are frequently misrepresented and misunderstood. The contributors at Cafe Hayek try to make the case. Take a look. You will not see mainstream politicians or media putting the libertarian case. Ever.
