“Rule of law certainly does not depend on democratic principles, but on the mark

—“Rule of law certainly does not depend on democratic principles, but on the market exchange of fully informed sovereign parties.

Almost by definition democracy requires that people are duped into believing that ideology runs the world (as opposed to interests) and that politicians and their establishment colleagues form cartels to perpetuate this illusion.

Case in point: election campaigns have very little connection to what an elected politician will actually pursue in office. The mechanisms at play in the exercise of power are not advertised.

Instead of institutionalizing swindle we should institutionalize the pursuit of our proper interests.

What mechanisms are at play in aristocracies?

Well, at first glance, norms of reproduction and inheritance (multi-generational investments), a degree of nepotism and the threat of violent ousting of rulers when exchange is not reciprocal.

Because if guns are traded for common suffrage we have a democracy instead.”—Simon Ström