INSTITUTIONAL RESTRICTIONS OF THE DEMOCRATIC APPROACH TO THE GENESIS OF ELITES

Abstract

The common problem of the democratic society is the discrepancy between the utopian idea of the nationwide choice of the worthiest members to serve in the governmental bodies and the real state of affairs when representatives of the ruling elites use their power for personal purposes, ignoring the needs of society, and distorting the electoral process using manipulative technologies (J. Robinson, G. Almond and others). The paper aims to explain the reasons for such a deviant (opportunistic) behavior of the ruling elite representatives in a meaningful way when making socially significant decisions, using the markets with asymmetric information model by George Akerlof. With unequal access to information flows, «inappropriate» candidates for elective positions displace «good» candidates in accordance with the principle of «negative selection». The compelling nature of these limitations to the democratic approach for elites origin signifies the existence of fundamental restrictions of the applicability of democracy, as well as the need to look for the alternative ways to form the governmental bodies.