Are low turnout rates a threat to democracy? Are low turnout rates a threat to democracy?

Low
voter turnout rates indicate one of several things: people are unable to be informed and to
participate due to health, over-work, interest or other reasons; people do not have the capacity
to understand issues and the meaning of politician's platforms due to educational limitations,
age, health, or other reasons; people are cynical and jaded about politics and politicians due
to scandals, votes by "representative conscience" rather than by "will of the
represented," escalating domestic and/or foreign crises or other reasons. In each of these
scenarios, the loss of votes makes a marked difference to the outcome of a democratic
representative election. Each group under-represented--the aged, ill, over-extended workers,
under-educated, idealists, those opposed to status quo--would weight the results of an election
to a statistically significant degree and might alter the ultimate choices made by government.
So low voter turnout is a threat to representative democracy. Without these...