Prometheus 6   

From a review of LAW, PRAGMATISM, AND DEMOCRACY By Richard A. Posner

via the NY Times

The founding fathers, Posner says, did not want to set up a democracy but a mixed government. That is in fact what they created -- with monarchical elements in the presidency, aristocratic elements in the Senate and Supreme Court and democratic elements in the lower house. The whole thing was intended to be a balance of interests in the way Cicero said successful republics must be. Some of us have said for 40 years that what we call ''representative democracy'' is what an earlier age understood as elective aristocracy. It is good to have Posner on our side.

The only regret is that he does little to spell out the reason for wanting populist elements in a mixed constitution -- essentially, that once you have agreed that government is a job for the full-time expert and that ''rule by the people'' is literally impossible, you need some way in which the ordinary man can stop the elite from walking off with the store.