6 Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy, Second Edition some New England towns of the 18th century, but it was impractical and impossible in nearly all other cases, whether in antiquity or current times. Representative government in all but the smallest political communities -regardless of regime type -- has been the dominant reality. In a democracy, representative government poses several challenges. One has to do with the verity and reliability of representation. Are the people's representatives consonant with the interests of the people they represent? Another has to do with the latitude enjoyed by the representatives in acting for their sovereign clients. Are they mere spokespersons for constituencies who strictly dene what their representatives are authorized and thereby capable of doing, even in rather specic ways, or, alternatively, enjoying the mandate and condence of their constituencies, are they free to act in whatever manner they deem will serve the latter's interests? The contemporary literature on delegative democracies inclines towards a liberal interpretation, one might even say an extremely liberal interpretation, of what representatives can do and the range of issues they can act on in behalf of their constituencies (O'Donnell in Diamond and Plattner, 2009:36-39). Yet another concern that links to representative government relates to the political authorities working in behalf of the public, whether they be publicly elected or simply appointed by the authorities. Since many issues of governance (e.g. public nance, economic growth and development, international relations) increasingly are often beyond the competence of the general public to understand, much less manage, the rise of experts in governance has been predictable. A bureaucracy not only of public servants but professional politicians and technical experts – technocrats – inevitably has come about. How does a sovereign public monitor the actions of these authorities and compel them to be accountable in a democracy? A distinction is also drawn by some theorists between the sovereign citizenry, "the people" and those that effectively govern theoretically in their behalf, the authorities. (Schmitter and Karl, 2009:4) There is even a view that the term political rulers might be more appropriately reserved for the authorities or administrations in power that actively govern. An issue raised by this distinction is to what extent democratic administrators actually rule in behalf of their constituencies and what recourse the sovereign people have when these ruling authorities betray their democratic commitments. However, with technology advances increasingly making it possible for people to quickly and directly impact on the political process, be it in periodic elections or in real-time event awareness, information, discussion and subsequent popular action, some thinkers speculate about the vulnerability of representative politics to increasingly direct citizen involvement and participation in politics. The rise of social media as distinguished from media's traditional corporate forms is illustrative of this concern. An “electronic republic” is evolving even now, some would argue, and its implications for