Surely if we stop people from voting, we can’t claim to be living in a democratic society.
Not necessarily.
Most democratic nations use legal systems that rely on verdicts that are made by juries that are filled with ordinary people. The people are selected randomly, though in some cases, a larger number may be randomly selected from which the jury are then chosen by the agreement of the prosecution and defence.
In the legal system, we’re happy to accept randomly selected jury members are going to act in the best interest of society and hear both sides of the argument in a case, before carefully considering that evidence and reaching a decision on guilt or innocence.
Why couldn’t we have the politicians who govern us for a period also be selected by random from the whole population?
It would get rid of political parties and the destructive partisan fighting in one stroke. It would also stop the pooling of political power in the hands of a few people who seek to use the power to their own personal advantage.
If we want more of a fail-safe in the system, before the appointment of a new government of randomly selected members, society could vote on whether they’re still happy to use the system rather than voting for their representatives.
I discuss this further, including some of the potential problems, in Many Blood Sucking Tics.