Elections or no Elections?

As a person born and raised mostly in democratic countries, I support the general notion of democracy and government with the consent of the people. Thus, I would definitely choose to live in a country that has an election.

Why is the institution of election necessary? The answer is not so much as in the fact that election allows us to choose the officials we believe can get the job done, because this is not what happens; in elections, there are always a "loser" who wasn't able to harness enough votes. Yet, these "losers" still had their set of constituents and this means that in an election, there will always be an unsatisfied bunch of people, and advocates for elections may go on saying "well, the majority decided these people were the best choice," but they will never be able to show that each one of us will gain a satisfactory result from an election. Therefore, elections don't necessarily always represent the interests of all people.

So why elections? The reason is that elections are the string that holds the government accountable to the people; elections make the government legitimate in the eyes of the public and it must act on the behalf of the public, not on some personal basis. When this unwritten law that government should represent the people is violated, the institution of election is what gives the people the right, the mandate, the permission to reject that government. For this reason, election is the key tenet of democracy, because without it, there is nothing that gives the people the power to fight the government when necessary.

What this accountability means is that the people have some power over the government, and in states where the government is the supreme power, they can do anything and everything to its population without the fear of reprisal because the government has autonomy, authority, capacity, and power to do it without outside influences because they are sovereign.

However, an interesting point that comes to my mind, which I wouldn't discuss here due to its length, is the country of China. Politically, it is Communist and its ideologies and proceedings are far, far away from liberalism, yet, it supports a mildly capitalistic economy. People still do not have the power over the government through the institution of election, yet the government has been able to provide stability and remarkably survive despite not having the consent of the people through the institution of election. Therefore, if it is possible for a state to dispose the institution of election, yet maintain its sovereignty and legitimacy in the eyes of the public, then I would definitely consider living there, because election to me is largely a dysfunctional institution that only has one basic role that a democratic country cannot live without.