It is somewhat surprising that even though so many countries are democratic in nature, that they are effectively controlled oftentimes by a small cabal, and that therefore what the people desire, should it be in conflict with what those elites desire, won’t therefore come into effect. The reason why a small fraction of the population can control an entire nation has a lot to do with employing the strategy of dividing the people, and through that division, maintaining one’s control of them, and therefore essentially conquering them.
The fact that so many consistently vote against their own interests is amazing, followed by the fact, that there are a multitude of laws, that are unequally applied, signifying that the government through its law enforcement can pretty much arrest anyone that they have been instructed to target, done under some dubious charge, of which, the people, are going to be fearful that this thus might well happen to them. So too, when the policing force of the nation doesn’t ever answer to the common man, but rather answers to those that empower that force, then the people are going to tend to be more compliant than they would desire to be, because of that fear of punishment.
Still, because there are so few that have so much, and so many that have not enough, it doesn’t seem to make sense that the change that the people desire, doesn’t seem to happen all that often. The reason that this is so, is those that who hold power are quite adept at exploiting differences between people, regarding their racial characteristics, background, education, religion, wealth, employment, and so on. Those who control the power levers of society do this because they correctly perceive that they are seriously outnumbered, but by seeding dissent between parties that would logically be joining together, they can repeatedly keep down those that should unite, from uniting.
Indeed, the change that we see in any nation, seldom comes from the ground up, though that does help, but rather typically comes from a powerful leader, who insists that something needs to be changed, and has a powerful faction in their control, that thus implements such, and if necessary, thereby relaxes the hand that would normally divide the people, to bring them together, for a time, but not for long, because whenever a nation has an elite that owns a gargantuan size of the nation’s wealth, they cannot afford to allow the people to remain united for long, because their very power could eventually be assailed.
To divide and conquer is a tactic that has been around forever, and will continue to exist, as long as humankind believes that their own aggrandizement is more important than doing the right thing by the society that they are a member of. Those then that have power want to keep the people uneasy, and at one another, because their weakness is necessary for their continued strength, and if that should ever change, society would be all the better, because those that are united in a good purpose, would reap a much healthier harvest, that would be more equally distributed.