The HBO series John Adams did a good job explaining the Founding Father's dislike of mob rule (HBO cheated for dramatic purposes by inventing that tar and feather scene). The US ended up with a Constitutional Republic because the founders were afraid of the mob, that is, direct democracy.

We do vote on things. You can have the kids vote on where to go for vacaction but as an estoppel "The Moon" loses even if it wins the popular vote. We allow votes only when there is a backstop that puts certain things out of limits. Or as Jonah Goldberg likes to say, a democracy is where 50% of the people can vote to piss in your cornflakes. Democracy is undesirable for that reason.

The backstops vary by organization. Families have Mom & Dad, businesses have a corporate board, the US government has a written constitution, and bowling leagues have USBC (United States Bowling Congress) certification.

Groups with an insufficient backstop die and the looser their bonds the quicker a bad implementation leads to death. Businesses are notoriously fragile; because they have competition any bone-headed idea pursued vigorously enough can kill them. Families are long lived but fickle; the pater familias changes every 30 years so[1] and there is an occasional falling out where one group of cousins and in-laws stops talking to everybody else and is happier for it. Nations are longer lived than families because leaving is tougher than just not going to summer reunions. Splitting a family can be accomplished with a sternly worded letter but splitting a nation requires 10%[2] of the population and lots of guns.

Nations are long lived but the more Democratic ones do fall more quickly because sooner or later someone puts "pissing in the other guy's cornflakes" up for a vote - and wins. The United States has had a good run because it was a Republic (and not a Democracy) and because it had a written constitution as a backstop. I use the past tense because the constitution hasn't been a backstop since WWII. It still serves a prime role in shaping public opinion but sooner or later we will come up to a "cornflake" vote, and 'flakers will win.

There was a recent time (recent as in my grandparents were alive) when the US "backstop" - the constitution - was taken seriously enough that when people wanted it changed they voted on changing it. In my grandmother's life[3] (born 1903) the following notable amendments were passed:

• The 16th Amendment which allowed income taxes. Imagine that a government had to get popular support to tax people, for fuck's sake.
• The 18th Amendment also known as Prohibition. A disastrous flaunt with nanny-ism.
• The 10th Amendment which gave women the right to vote[4]
• The famous[5] 21st amendment that repealed Prohibition. Nuff said.
• The 17th Amendment. Ugh. Saved for last, this is the amendment that made the Senate democratically elected instead of appointed by the States. Predictably Senators went from promoting their State's backstop interests to promoting their State's crass (cash) interests. We live with this system today.

I enjoy the fact that the constitution is popularly enjoyed as a backstop. But the constitution hasn't been a legal backstop against the legislature in a long time. Sooner or later someone will come around to piss in your conflakes.

[1] I'm a "Son of the American Revolution" but for all I know my great-great-whatever relative who actually fought in the revolution loathed my branch of the family. Was he a Heidiger? a Gregory? a Barthold? Maybe none of the above and maybe he hated all of them. Family is fickle.
[2] A minimum of 10% of the population. If I recall correctly many communist revolutions got by with that amount. But if you ask a Southerner 10% is wholly insufficient (what was that - 30%? 40%?). What a successful revolution needs is a larger percentage of the population that is willing to die for it than that is willing to fight against it. For better or worse the American Civil War was so bloody because so many people actually cared.
[3] Obituary writers have a tough job. Jobs are kept by the people that can do them best. Obituary writers have to call the house of the family that is suffering most from a very recent loss and then - as strangers - ask questions. Therefore obituary writing is a job that is held by complete dicks. Here is me answering the phone call by the obituary journo for the Philadelphia Inquirer, inquiring about my grandmother's death:

Writer: How did she die?
Me: She was 95.
Writer: I understand, but this is a free service and we need to include the actual cause of death.
Me: *pause, remember to breathe*
Me: Old age.
Writer: I understand, but as part of the format we have to publish the medical reason.
Me: *pause, remember to not curse*
Me: Complications related to a stroke.
Writer: Thank you.