They following is a rather brilliant summation of modern 'bourgeois democracy', from the country which invented it:
The idea of an actual representation of all classes of the people by persons of each class is altogether visionary [utopian]. Unless it were expressly provided in the Constitution that each different occupation should send one or more members, the thing would never take place in practice. Mechanics [wage-labourers] and manufacturers [artisans] will always be inclined, with few exceptions, to give their votes to merchants in preference to persons of their own professions or trades. Those discerning citizens are well aware that the mechanic and manufacturing arts furnish the materials of mercantile enterprise and industry. Many of them, indeed, are immediately connected with the operations of commerce. They know that the merchant is their natural patron and friend; and they are aware that however great the confidence they may justly feel in their own good sense, their interests can be more effectually promoted by the merchant than by themselves.
[Publius [Alexander Hamilton], in The Federalist Papers
(New York: New American Library, 1961), p. 214. My emphases.]
The Republican Party these days explicitly markets itself as a congerie of entrepreneurial 'wealth creators', familiar to the market-integrated electorate as managers and providers, seeking career secondment as political leaders. The Democrats only really differ by degree. The quote's a brilliantly prescient view, from as early as the 1780s Federalist Papers, of how democracy in a capitalist society pans out.
