Ineffectiveness of individual participation in large communities

The size of the political community is so large today that its members are separated from its leaders simply by their number. Individuals have little effective voice in local government except when the units of local government are autonomous, self-governing, self-budgeting communities and are small enough to create the possibility of an immediate link between the man-in-the-street and his local officials and elected representatives. Government becomes invisible as it leaves the realm of most citizens' daily lives; popular referenda are infrequent and decisions are via political machinery and rules of expediency with little concern for the long-term interests of the individuals in the electorate.