The Singapore parliament: Representation, effectiveness, and control

In modern democratic societies, people think of liberty not so much in the classical sense, which highly valorizes the duty of free citizens to engage in direct face-to-face interaction in the public sphere. Rather, in the more liberal sense, liberty is to be found in the private sphere where individuals are free to produce, earn, exchange, and consume according to principles that they themselves are free to determine through critical thought and rational communication. If, as observed in classical notions of direct democracy, everyone was expected to participate in public deliberation and government, then such public duties would cost the modern individuals their much more greatly cherished private liberties. Therefore, modern individuals are happy to delegate these duties to representatives whose authority would be based on their ability to understand and act in the individuals’ interests, the public and mass media scrutiny that holds them accountable when they act against these interests, and the regular general elections that threaten to replace representatives who have lost the confi dence of their electors.