Why Do We Ignore the People We Elect?
How Citizens Can Rediscover the Purpose of Representative Democracy
Have We Become So Educated That We Have Forgotten How to Practise Democracy?
We live in an age of expanding education, rising incomes, professional success and instant communication. Yet an uncomfortable question deserves our attention:
Have we become better educated without becoming better at practising democracy?
This is not an argument against education, professional achievement or administrative expertise. It is an observation about something that modern society may have overlooked: the purpose of electing representatives and the importance of using them effectively.
Why Do We Elect Representatives?
Why do people elect village council leaders, municipal councillors, legislators and members of parliament?
Elections are not merely occasions for choosing individuals to occupy public office. They establish a relationship between citizens and those entrusted with representing their collective interests.
A village needs roads, streetlights, drinking water, schools, healthcare, sanitation and drainage. A city needs public transport, effective waste management, flood prevention, environmental protection and long-term urban planning.
These are not simply individual inconveniences. They are collective problems requiring resources, coordination, planning and sustained attention.
Government departments administer public services. Elected representatives, however, provide a democratic channel through which citizens can raise shared concerns, demand political attention and seek accountability for public decisions.
This distinction is central to representative democracy.
Yet have we, as citizens, gradually forgotten how to use this channel?
A Private Problem Is Not the Same as a Public Problem
Consider a simple example.
If the drainage pipe inside my house becomes blocked, I can contact the appropriate service provider. My elected representative need not be involved in every household inconvenience.
But imagine that the main drainage channel serving an entire neighbourhood becomes blocked. Hundreds or thousands of families may be affected. Resolving the problem could require machinery, funding, coordination between departments and sustained follow-up.
Residents can submit individual complaints to the relevant office. That is a legitimate option.
But they also have another option: approaching the representative they elected and asking that the collective problem be addressed.
The representative can raise the issue with the relevant authorities, seek explanations, press for a clear response and follow up on the progress of the work.
An individual complaint can report a problem. Collective representation can help turn that problem into a public priority.
This is why citizens need to understand the difference between seeking an individual service and demanding action on a shared public concern.
The point is not that every complaint must pass through a politician. It is that the democratic role of elected representatives should not be forgotten or dismissed.
When Education Becomes a Barrier
In my observation, some educated and professionally successful people hesitate to approach elected representatives, particularly when those representatives have fewer formal educational qualifications.
A person who speaks fluent English, earns a substantial salary and holds impressive academic credentials may feel uncomfortable meeting a local representative whom they consider less educated.
Instead, they may prefer to approach a senior government official directly. They may write a formal letter, submit a petition or seek an appointment with an administrative officer, believing that this is the more sophisticated way to resolve a public problem.
There is nothing wrong with approaching an official. Government officers possess professional knowledge and have important legal and administrative responsibilities.
The concern is different: why should a person's educational status or social position determine whether they are willing to use the democratic institutions available to them?
Academic qualifications and democratic legitimacy are two different things.
A representative may have limited formal education and still hold a legitimate public mandate. That mandate comes from the people who elected them, not from their academic certificates.
Education should help us understand institutions, responsibilities and systems of accountability. It should not create a sense of superiority that prevents us from engaging with those institutions.
Perhaps the real question is not how educated we have become, but how wisely we use the opportunities that education provides.
The Bullock and the Yoke
Let me explain this through a simple image.
Imagine a bullock willingly placing a yoke upon itself and beginning to plough a field without anyone guiding it or asking it to work.
Would we consider that a sensible expectation?
Yet some citizens seem to expect an administrative system to identify every neglected public problem, mobilise resources, overcome delays and act with urgency simply because a complaint has been submitted.
Of course, many public servants work conscientiously and serve their communities with dedication. The issue is not whether officials are good or bad people.
The issue is whether we should expect a complex administrative system to function effectively without sustained public attention, political pressure and accountability.
A complaint may inform an office about a problem. But it does not automatically guarantee that the problem will receive priority, that departments will coordinate, or that action will continue until the work is completed.
This is where elected representatives become important.
They have a political relationship with the people who elected them. They must answer to their constituents and face public judgment at election time. Citizens can question them, demand explanations and ask what they have done to address the community's concerns.
That relationship does not guarantee success. Representatives can fail, and administrative systems can malfunction. Nevertheless, the relationship provides an important channel through which collective concerns can become demands for action.
The democratic process should not be reduced to casting a vote once every few years and then hoping that every institution will work perfectly on its own.
The Value of Local Knowledge
There is another reason why local representation matters: knowledge of the community.
An administrative officer may be highly qualified but may have arrived in a town recently through a transfer. The officer may understand the law, procedures and technical requirements without knowing the history of a particular neighbourhood, the relationships between local families or the background of a recurring community dispute.
An experienced local representative may possess that contextual knowledge.
I have personally witnessed an incident in which a mother approached a legislator after one of her sons was arrested following a violent altercation with his half-brother. The legislator knew the family's history and the recurring tensions between the siblings. He offered to speak with the police inspector in an effort to prevent further escalation.
Such intervention must never replace a lawful investigation or obstruct justice. Its significance was that familiarity with the community created an opportunity to understand the circumstances and seek a lawful, proportionate response.
Local representatives can serve as important links between citizens and public institutions. Their role can extend beyond roads, water supply and streetlights to community welfare, access to services and the early handling of local tensions.
This is one of the practical values of representation that may be overlooked when public office is judged primarily through educational qualifications or social status.
When Public Problems Become Disasters
Consider urban flooding.
When natural drainage channels are obstructed, wetlands disappear, lakes are encroached upon and construction covers land that once absorbed or carried rainwater, the consequences can extend across entire cities.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified urban expansion and land-use changes that increase impermeable surfaces as factors that can intensify flood risk. UN-Habitat has also emphasised the importance of coordinated governance and effective urban planning in building resilient cities.
Sources:
Cities, settlements and key infrastructure:
- "UN-Habitat — World Cities Report 2024"
These problems cannot be resolved simply by treating every flooded home as an isolated complaint. They require long-term planning, protection of natural waterways, infrastructure investment, enforcement of regulations and coordination across different levels of government.
Flooding has many causes, including extreme rainfall, climate change, inadequate drainage capacity and patterns of urban development. A failure of democratic representation is not the sole explanation for these disasters.
My argument is that effective public participation and political accountability are essential components of addressing problems that affect entire communities.
When citizens approach public problems only as isolated individuals, broader questions of planning, prevention and collective responsibility may receive less attention than they deserve.
Democracy Does Not End on Election Day
Research and policy work by organisations such as the OECD and the World Bank emphasise the importance of citizen participation, public accountability and engagement beyond elections.
Sources:
- "OECD — Government at a Glance 2025" (https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/government-at-a-glance-2025_0efd0bcd-en/full-report/citizen-participation-and-deliberation_52b90285.html)
- "World Bank — Civic and Citizen Engagement" (https://www.worldbank.org/ext/en/topic/social-development/citizen-engagement)
The broader principle is clear: democracy requires more than voting. It requires citizens to remain engaged with the institutions and representatives through which public decisions are made.
A failed streetlight may require only a service request. A neighbourhood suffering from recurring drainage failures may need both administrative action and political accountability. A school without essential facilities or a community facing chronic water shortages may need residents to organise their concerns and demand action through their elected representatives.
Direct complaints, legal remedies, public campaigns and administrative procedures all have legitimate roles. Citizens should use the channels appropriate to their circumstances.
But they should not assume that approaching an official automatically replaces the democratic purpose of electing representatives.
The responsibility of citizens does not end when they cast their votes. Nor does the responsibility of elected representatives end when the election is over.
A meaningful democratic relationship must continue between elections.
The Question We May Have Forgotten to Ask
A society can become more educated, prosperous and technologically connected while overlooking important aspects of democratic participation.
We may know how to write professional emails, navigate bureaucracies and earn substantial incomes. But do we understand how to use our collective political voice?
Are we willing to approach our elected representatives, ask difficult questions and demand follow-through, even when those representatives have different educational backgrounds or social manners from our own?
Or have we allowed personal pride and social status to distance us from one of the most important institutions available to us?
These questions are not accusations against all educated people, all public servants or all politicians. They are an invitation to examine a habit of thought that may weaken public participation.
Administration and representation perform different but complementary functions. An official may possess the technical authority to carry out a task. An elected representative provides a democratic channel through which citizens can demand political attention to their collective needs.
Neither role makes the other unnecessary.
Democracy is not merely the freedom to choose our representatives. It is also the responsibility to use that representation, question it and keep it connected to the everyday lives of the people.
Perhaps it is time to ask ourselves one final question:
Have we become so educated that we have forgotten how to practise democracy?
-𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘢 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘶
Yozen Balki
Chennai, India.
கருத்துகள் இல்லை:
கருத்துரையிடுக
You can give here your comments: