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Government of the people, by the people, for the people
That great U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln, referred to the democracy for which he fought so hard as "Government of the people, by the people, for the people."
It is worth comparing that to modern reality. Let's look at the three parts.
We certainly have government "of the people" for we are taxed a very substantial part of our earnings through various taxes, levies and duties. Governments make laws which regulate our lives and immerse many in large amounts of paperwork and others in collecting the taxes for the government. Governments work together across states and countries to share ideas and strategies for governing the people.
By the people or by a political party?
Whilst it is true that the people elect politicians to office, we do not really have "Government by the people". The people generally do not involve themselves in the business of government until and unless it upsets them in some way. In reality we have government by political parties. These are extremely small groups within any state or nation, compared with the size of the population. Politicians are elected to parliament. The political Party with the most members in parliament gets to govern the country or state. To do so it controls a bureaucracy of public servants or government employees.
For the people or for the friends of government?
Taking the third part of Lincoln's observation, we do not really have "government for the people" either. It is true that government provides many services to the people, but that is not the same.
Government is run first and foremost for the controlling political party, so that it may impose its ideas for the country or state, on the people who elected it. Government is also run for the benefit of that political party's members, to provide them with what they want eg big corporate profits or higher pay for workers. Then too it is specifically run for the benefit of large political election campaign donors and service providers, without whose good graces the party would not be in government. Next it is run for the public service bureaucracy which actually supervises provision of services and tends to regard the elected politicians as the "casual staff". Government is then run for the benefit of a host of business organisations, vested interests and non-government organisations which lobby it for favourable business opportunities and contracts or in the case of NGO's, for funding to pay their staff.
For the people, at least enough to win their votes!
After those special interest groups have been looked after, government is operated by and large for the people, but even then it is primarily run for the electoral advantage of the governing political party. For instance, if that political party expects to get kudos from going to war or the spoils of war, it may lead the country in to war. If ensuring that drivers licence holders could and would drive safely means alienating enough voters so that the chances of re-election diminish, the political party in government will be comfortable with thousands being killed on the roads by the incompetent and the road criminals. The same applies to safety in hospitals, mental health services, child abuse, education of poor children and a host of other responsibilities. If it is judged good for re-election prospects it is done. If it is judged to jeopardise re-election chances it is not done, though the people may suffer horrendously as a consequence.
Votes are the currency of democracy
However, in this truth lies the salvation of democracy, because if the people want government to do, stop or modify something, all they have to do is link it with action which affects votes. If the political party in power believes that those people can affect its chance of re-election, they will attend to the issue.
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