I think it is impossible to talk about democracy today without discussing the corporate capture of government.

Where I live in California we have a type of direct democracy in the form of 'ballot measures'. This was intended to let voters decide important issues directly without the powerful being able to suppress the will of the people.

In recent years ballot measures have been turned on their head by corporations and special interest groups. They pay to have measures put on the ballot that no normal citizen could understand, then use uninformed people to pass their agenda.

Just reading one today: Proposition 29 requiring a Medical Professional at Dialysis clinics. The average person would not know that this would outlaw these clinics and turn them over to the big hospitals. Great for big hospitals, bad for small doctors and rural patients.

I think we've come to the end of democracy in the West, and the real question is how does the 'will of the people' get back into government, and not just the will of big corporations.