Democracy: Excessive, Bored, or Irrelevant?

Several things happened recently around the world make me think about the gap between the democracy as a notion and the democratic exercises in reality.

a. Democracy becomes excessive

Jonathan Tepperman of the Newsweek writes that the huge protests recently happened in South Korea, Thailand and India all have negative impact on each nation's interest.

Granted. While describing the breakdowns as the lack of democatic maturity, the auther attributes it to each country's authoritarian tradition. Although lumping South Korea, Thailand and India into one analytical umbrella is quite unconvincing, especially for the Indian case, the article does reveal that the author is more concerned about the economic development (as in South Korea and Thailand), and the prospect of India-US nuclear deal. Isn't that a shift of concern from democracy per se to the national interest?

b. Democracy becomes irrelevant

Chomsky thinks that the presidential campaign in US this year is really different because the issue of health care system has become a real concern of the candidates. However, the reason for such a change is 'a big segment of corporate America shifts its position', so 'it becomes politically possible'. Chomsky observes that the public is still irrelevant in setting up such a political agenda. Whether or not Obama can bring some changes is still a question mark, the real problem is how and when the democracy in US has become fake.

c. Democracy becomes bored

How to explain the current impasse of the Lisbon Treaty is quite tricky. Why such a seemingly promising integration plan fails to trigger the active involvement of the grass root people? Are they really bored?

d. When democracy is neither excessive nor irrelevant nor bored?

Jurgen Habermas addresses the deadlock of the Lisbon Treaty in his latest essay and calls for the referendum accross the national border within the EU 'on the same day, using the same procedure and on the same issue', but it's rejected by Alfred Grosser, who argues 'instead of continuing to break apart the solidarity within the union, we should focus on creating a binding moral foundation.'