In part, militant socialism at the end of the 19th century was a good reason for capitalists to expand the voting franchise to include the working class. They were afraid of revolution. But by the late 1940’s theorists of democracy like Joseph Schumpeter were honest enough to say that democracy is really about the “circulation of elites”. Democracy simply meant people choosing which elite we would be ruled by. This article points out that people themselves don’t take these elections seriously.
