The public’s idea of democracy is that it is a simple process in which people elect their representatives to carry out their instructions. Scholars call this the ‘folk theory of democracy’.50 It is an updated view of the faith medieval peasants placed in their monarch. If the king was ignoring them it must be because he had bad advisers. Simply update the divine right of kings with the divine right of the people: ‘The people are never corrupted, but sometimes deceived.’
