«But it was Mother who took up the explanation. “Sandra Voi was a genius, but she was also a pragmatist. Our demarchist system is as perfect as it can ever be. Flawless, instantaneous mass democratic participation. The will of the people, without interference. No government, no hierarchies, no vested interests, no possibility of bias or corruption.”

“But—” Julius said.

Mother raised a gentle, silencing hand, and he let her continue. “But true democracy embodies the possibility of its own dissolution. If a ballot were put to the people to abandon our demarchist principles, and the votes carried the day… what then? You may say that no such vote would ever be cast. But that is to neglect the pressures that may apply during times of crisis, during emergencies and times of economic hardship, or when wild and seductive new ideas run rife. Sandra Voi took the long view. She knew that even the most perfect system must contain a self-protecting contingency.”

“We are that contingency,” Father said.»

Elysium Fire
Alastair Reynolds https://bookshop.org/p/books/elysium-fire-alastair-reynolds/114307?ean=9780316555661&next=t&digital=t

I think these guys are supposed to be the bad guys, and the “perfect demarchist system” is supposed to be a good thing, but….

In light of the ’24 election… now what?