The concept of “the people” as a political entity as a depository of power has never been clearly defined. It was initially confused with “the nation”, another political fiction that replaced that of the monarch. “Sovereignty” is another ambiguous word that, however, characterizes the modern state. “Legitimacy” also adds misunderstandings. And representative democracy is a synthesis of contradictions and gaps left by these ideas, which, emptied of content and distorted, are nevertheless an essential part of political organization.

When the emergence of mass society was added to the conceptual deficiencies of people, sovereignty and legitimacy, the confusion reached its peak. The ultimate victim was the political representation and decay of systems based on the assumed ownership of the order that voters made politicians.

The pre-election campaign for the presidential candidates will be launched and they will have 35 days to promote

In theory, the thesis is that citizens delegate their political powers to figures who should express their will and translate their interests. This, however, implies that there should be a clear, unambiguous correspondence between the project (speech) proposed by the candidate in the campaign and the mandate assigned by the citizen with his vote. But in this relationship between the voters and the elected, there are serious disturbances, complications and structural deformations resulting from propaganda, demagoguery, phraseology, calculated silence and dodging of candidates. And a lie. Added to this is the sentimental nature of voting, usually devoid of minimal rationality and full of prejudice, bigotry and ignorance.

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The assumption, also wrong, is that the people are “wise”, that they are sufficiently informed and that they know how to distinguish private interest from general interest. This almost never happens. There are certain exceptions, but the vast majority vote driven by propaganda, which is essentially a false method to sell the pig in a bubble, or they decide according to primal likes or dislikes, smiles and offers.

If the big issues are, for example, employment and security, the unsuspecting citizen will vote for the candidate who speaks best on those issues, but the candidate will be careful to say how and what actual resources they will use to solve the problem. these questions, we will pay attention to the limitations. He will make an offer of salvation that will ring very well in the ears of members of communities beset by unemployment and fear. They will try not to go beyond reassuring statements and will avoid precision. People will choose, as in other matters, hope. And it’s understandable that he does. But, in the long run, it is tragic, because there will be no results, and frustration will grow.

It is obvious that the political mandate, which is the basis of representative democracy, represents serious weaknesses and structural problems, which explain the disappointments and undermine public trust, faith in institutions and the possibility to ensure the system’s minimum coherence. (OR)