very true, that is often what local politics can be like. and having an uniformed group of the demagogues operate in the same way at federal level doesn't work either. but this isn't to say that participatory democracy is itself a bad thing. Indeed it might be an argument in favour of more involvement such as compulsory voting! there seem to be so many impediments in the US standing in the way of full participatory democracy that it can hardly be said to have been tried yet!
very true, that is often what local politics can be like. and having an uniformed group of the demagogues operate in the same way at federal level doesn't work either. but this isn't to say that participatory democracy is itself a bad thing. Indeed it might be an argument in favour of more involvement such as compulsory voting! there seem to be so many impediments in the US standing in the way of full participatory democracy that it can hardly be said to have been tried yet!