In what we call the democratic system, can a shy person become a politician? Can someone with an inability to speak well become a politician?
No.
Politicians are people who tend to be extroverted, have charisma, charm people, speak well, and are extremely confident. That already creates a filter for the sort of person you would find in the political office. The way in which electoral politics is framed, there are certain people who are already excluded from the possibility of office.
Further, it is not like people who have served in office once are excluded from being in office again. They can keep running for political offices over and over.
This creates a small group of people whom we refer to as politicians.
Democracy is a rule by the people. Dictionaries will sneakily insert “typically through elected representatives,” which is not a precondition to democracy.
In this book, the author makes the case that picking 500 random people to run the government is a far more representative and egalitarian means of selecting a government than through the electoral system that we have come to depend on. The electoral system only serves to exclude a large number of people from being able to rule or create rules that govern our societies.
This leads to the capture of the government by a small number of politicians. This is the rule of the few, more appropriately defined as an oligarchy. We, the people, are sent to elections at a fixed cadence to choose from the same set of candidates over and over.
These people can then be easily bought and owned by the elites in the system who fund their elections and drive all of the policy agenda.
If at all, any policies are passed that align with the needs of the larger masses, it is because the interests of the elites align with the masses and not because there is any interest in doing anything for the masses.
Historically, several societies, including Athens, picked people for political offices through lots. This system was slowly eroded away by the 17th century to give us the modern electoral representative system.
The problem is that having career politicians reduces the need for them to do anything for the larger populace. The current state of equity across the world is a result of having politicians who would serve the will of the monies interests alone.
And yet they are called " People's Representatives"