The sophisticated view of democracy is that it can only work if it is checked by a system of individual rights, independence of the judiciary, the separation of powers and other balances. There is no such thing as the popular will, just a series of messy deals between competing interests. It is hard to watch any legislature making laws without thinking the whole business is corrupt. As Bismarck put it, ‘Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.’
