Democracy is a high wire act.

But it's also a universal human yearning, as the demonstrations and marches around the world recently illustrate. There will always be people ready to exploit any lapse by the people, however. You can't set a political system and forget it. There will always be judges, some in the judicial system, who think their views of what society should be outweighs what the majority decides. Our founders gave it a good shot, but no complex operation can endure without constant attention. Once the majority chooses a course away from responsibility and discipline, it's very difficult to get back.