Should politicians reflect the interests of the people when their constituents may not fully comprehend their own interests?

Should Politicians Represent the Interests of Uninformed Constituents?

Yes, politicians must represent the interests of their constituents, even if those constituents are unaware of their own interests. Assume the same constituency that does not understand their interests is presented with a circumstance in which the representative believes that a certain nation is harboring terrorists or their organizations and is developing weapons that will be utilized for mass destruction. Because the citizens do not understand their own interests, it is up to the trustee to act in their best interests. The politicians would be acting on the greater common good and promoting national interests, since he is the person entrusted for the seat by the citizens.

The Capability of Democratic Governance for Uninformed and Apathetic Citizens

In addition, we might also ask whether a country made up of uninformed and apathetical citizens is truly capable of democratic governance.
Despite research showing that many Americans are uninformed and/or apathetic regarding what is going on with politics in their constituencies there should be a good representation model for them. It is complex, in trying to choose the most appropriate representation to the America's political structure. The difficulty brought about is because trustee vs Delegate itself is equally old as that of democracy. However, conservatives have endorsed the idea of choosing of the trustee model since they insists that it is the better option since they distrust direct democracy and argue that there will be an autocracy when the majority is involved. Consequently, the populists have countered this notion by saying that the better option would be that of the delegate model, since they believe that through it the people interests are brought out in their full potential. The trustee model is vague and has laid a lot of power on one side of elite individuals. The capability of democratic governance at this juncture is uncertain because the American citizens and population is people who are uninformed and apathetic (Leslie 36).

Which Representation Model is Best for the American Public?

Which model of representation (trustee or delegate) is best suited to meet the needs of the American public?
The debates that have been there that is the arguments and counter-arguments have shed a lot of light in regards to which is the best representation model for the American people. In the past the elections held for the leaders in America the trustee have always been on the winning side and especially for the presidential seat.
However, recent polls that have been held for the American elections have shown that the citizens are slowly losing faith and interest in trustees. The loss of faith has been brought about by the inability of these elected leaders in solving their ever increasing problems which their leaders have chosen to turn a blind eye on. The politicians are also not recognizing the poor they are only choosing to work with the rich corporate elite because they fuel their interests when it comes to electing them. The rich are the heart of these problems that are caused and inflicted to the poor and uniformed American citizens (Leslie 50). The American way of doing things is by choosing of a trustee leader thus little or no representation of the public since all ideas rest on the shoulder of the elected officials. Thus the public input when it comes to the legislature is very minimal or has totally been outdone.<\/p>

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