1. The voter typically visits the marketplace much more frequently than the polling place, thereby conveying much more rapid feedback to sellers than to the political process. Typically, she may "vote" at the supermarket weekly, but only quadrennially in presidential elections. In order to counter this difficulty, it is sometimes proposed that voting be carried out on a day-to-day basis in an "electronic democracy." Such a system, however, would present further difficulties. In particular, rational policy-making would become virtually impossible, particularly with regard to issues where voter opinion was almost evenly divided. In such cases, shifts in majority opinion could cause a major decision to be reversed several times within a few days.      Next page

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