ABSTRACT
The democratic idea has also been attacked as impracticable because it asks for qualities which the ordinary man cannot possibly be expected to possess. Consequently, to try to realize it would produce a parody of democracy at best. Government, it is argued, is a highly technical business, calling for a range of specialist knowledge and skills which not even the most conscientious elector could ever hope to acquire. If electors try to impose their uninformed preferences on their governments, and censure them if they act on their own superior understanding of affairs, their governments will lose touch with reality, and will lack the nerve to cope with difficulties calling for unpopular remedies. If democracies appear to work, that is only because they are technocracies masquerading as such.
