The theory of representative government rests on the principle that an individual is a rational being, i.e., that they are able to perceive the facts of reality,
to evaluate them,
to form rational judgments,
to make their own choices, and
to bear responsibility for the course of their life.
Politically, this principle is implemented by a person’s right to choose their own agents, i.e., those whom they authorize to represent them in the government of their country. To represent them, in this context, means to represent their views in terms of political principles. Thus the government of a free country derives its “just powers from the consent of the governed.”
As a corroboration of the link between an individual's rational faculty and a representative form of government, observe that those who are demonstrably or physiologically incapable of rational judgment cannot exercise the right to vote.
Voting is a derivative, not a fundamental, right; it is derived from the right to life, as a political implementation of the requirements of a rational being’s survival.
Children do not vote, because they have not acquired the knowledge necessary to form a rational judgment on political issues; neither do the feeble-minded or the insane, who have lost or never developed their rational faculty.
The possession of a rational faculty does not guarantee that a person will use it, only that they are able to use it and are, therefore, responsible for their actions.
