election demographics

[Gordon Fitch]

> >As I see it, national elections in the United States are in
> >the mystical, church-like category.  Participation is rational
> >if the participants get a good feeling out of it, but it is
> >not an expression of collective will -- the will of the
> >individual non-elite participant doesn't matter.

Brad DeLong:
> Except that the individual non-elite participant--hell, the
> individual elite participant--doesn't have a separate, individualized
> "will". What I "will" and think is the result of a lot of social
> interactions I have had and will have. And so everything I "will" is
> simultaneously willed by all those others who have been affected by
> similar social interactions in the same way.
>
> The fact that other people will what I will greatly amplifies the
> power of my will, if you get the drift...

Well, if the will one experiences is just an aggregate of
social forces, in effect there's no there there and nothing
to talk about -- nobody's home.  It seems to me that the idea
of democracy is based on the idea that people are autonomous,
willful and sufficiently intelligent to either deal with public
issues or pick agents to do so on their behalf.