Today more people than ever before live in democracies, yet more and more individuals feel that they have decreasing say in decisions that affect their lives. International organizations make decisions about everything from government spending on education to how much an ivory poacher should be fined, technocrats make decisions about missile programs and interest rates, and intelligence agencies make decisions about civil liberties and internet access. Poverty, illiteracy, and intimidation effectively disenfranchise citizens within each country, while international boundaries legitimate the voicelessness of those outside. If democracy is so important to us, why do we allow, and even encourage, this distancing? Whose interests does this "democratic deficit" serve? Should it be challenged? By whom? This tutorial confronts these questions on a theoretical and philosophical level, and on an empirical one. Throughout the semester, we will consider what democracy is, and why it is valued and decried. We will examine formal mechanisms set up to encourage participation and to overcome democracy's weaknesses, and informal strategies that citizens and noncitizens, criminals and lobbyists, use to influence outcomes. Case studies from around the world, at the village, provincial, national and international levels will focus our assessment of how, and to what end, this gap operates politically. Format: tutorial. Requirements: 5 papers and 5 critiques. No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 10 (expected: 10). Preference given to sophomores.