content: Pretty much this. French republic that was created about the same time (French revolution) was explicitly conceived as an alternative to democracy, and was usually called the "representative government". The arguments were that people were not educated enough and too busy with being exploited in factories to know what is good for them. The all thing has now been relabeled "democracy", and it's almost hard-wired in people brain that electing representative is synonymous to democracy.  Sad times.