Is a legislative walkout democratic?

This morning Indiana's Democratic legislators followed their Wisconsin colleagues and departed the state to bring the Indiana legislature to a halt. Of course if one agrees with their opposition, this looks like a clever political strategy. But is it really? Is it the proper operation of a representative democracy?

In a representative democracy, people elect their representative, who gather and debate legislative proposals, and then vote on them. In general the vote favors the majority, as it should, since the majority were elected by (in theory) roughly the majority of the people they represent. The minority loses most votes, as they should, since in general they represent a minority of the population. If the public doesn't like what the majority is doing, they don't re-elect them, and power swings to the other party.

That is what happened in Wisconsin and a number of other states in the last election. Wisconsin Republicans ran on a platform of restoring fiscal sanity to the state budget. And they ran quite openly and specifically on the promise to control the public-sector unions. And the majority of the people put them in office with that promise, and no doubt expect them to keep it.

So when the minority opposition brings the legislature to a halt because they oppose proposed legislation, legislation which they know in advance will be passed by a majority elected by a majority of the citizens they represent, they are effectively attempting to break the representative democratic system -- to play outside of its rules (even a US Senate filibuster is still operating withing the rules of the Senate).

So I don't see this tactic as politically clever - I see it as a dangerous precedent threatening American representative democracy. If it works, all minority opposition groups will use it any time they want to block the majority will, and our legislative system will quickly become a shambles. And unions, well-organized, well-financed by the compulsory union dues their members must pay, and already exerting undue influence on Democratic politics, will no doubt be among the biggest users of this tactic.