I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the following issue: Why does it seem so difficult to turn sound economic policy into political action (i.e., results) in the United States and other established democracies? There are many versions of this complaint. So, for example, why do American Congressmen insist on playing an adult variant of the game “Chicken” when addressing the national debt ceiling? Why has the EU been unable to get ahead of the markets in dealing with the Greek crisis? Why has such a rich and productive nation as Japan been unable to rekindle growth across two decades?

I have come to an uncomfortable conclusion. Democracy works a bit too well these days and we are receiving the government we deserve. For me, this is linked to the parallel yet related phenomenon of why quality journalism, at least in the form of broadsheet newspapers and broadcast news, has been drowned in a murky sea of tabloid celebrity worship and “reality” television. Amid Dancing with the Stars, Celebrity Apprentice and The Bachelor is it any wonder that democracies are being starved of the intellectual oxygen needed to create an informed electorate. It is not that serious journalism, including I would argue that produced at Reuters News (but also at other organizations and by individual bloggers) does not exist, but that these are being narrowcast to a small elite. We get the government we deserve in part because we get the media we deserve.

In The Politics Aristotle wrote that he did not fear for the State, because the great and the good would always come forward to govern since they could not abide to be led by lesser men, In our more selfish contemporary civilization, I don’t believe we can count on this noble elitism, nor should we. However, we are then faced with the responsibility as citizens to inform ourselves sufficiently on the serious and complex matters of public policy so that we can exercise the vote effectively. Thus, we have a choice: Revel in our couch potato ignorance and allow an educated elite, directly or indirectly, to govern. Or educate ourselves sufficiently to make wise political choices — principally by electing the right candidates for the right reasons.

Why does it appear that things have gotten suddenly worse? Why has the political paralysis gotten so bad of late in established democracies that serious liberal commentators sound downright wistful about the ability of the Chinese State to turn policy into action? I think there are two main reasons. First, the longer we have allowed problems to build up, the longer-term the solutions must be. This is always a challenge in a democracy as we must rely on our elected representatives to adopt policies which are likely to only yield returns beyond the next election. This is even more the case when, as today, current term sacrifices are required only to restore reasonable fiscal balance in the future. Second, the amazing advances in technology over the past two decades (principally, the internet) have further shortened the feedback loop and encouraged politicians to respond to shorter and shorter term influences. Finally, while populism is hardly a new phenomenon among politicians, the political elite (think UK civil service “mandarins”; US Senators and Cabinet officials: etc) is losing its ability to influence policy out of the glare of the “always on,” You Tube digital media.

Returning to the role of the media, it is fashionable to blame the mogul-owners for pandering to the lowest common denominator, and thereby intentionally leading a downward spiral in public discourse. There may well be some truth to this, and scandals such as phone-hacking in the UK add support to this argument. However, I believe this unduly absolves us all of a collective and individual responsibilty we should have as citizens of the modern democracy. By and large, media companies are pursuing a profit motive (especially when publicly owned), and thus are publishing and broadcasting the material they believe will sell to the broadest audience. This is particularly true in an advertising supported model. As such, these companies are really holding a giant mirror up to the public at large. If we don’t like what we see in the mirror, we should each do something about it; arguing that the person holding the mirror is aiming it downwards is an abdication of personal responsibility.

There is only one solution for better government: Demand the information needed to evaluate complex policy decisions and vote the pandering demagogues who only play sound bite politics out of office. We deserve no less.