Autonomy versus Democracy

People who complain about the slowness and cumbersome nature of governmental bureaucracies as compared to the efficiency of private organizations are overlooking a major factor in the operational sector of each. Private organizations and businesses are much simpler to run than the government. Decision making is usually handled by a single individual or small board whose goal is simple: make a profit. Of course there are lots of factors that go into reaching that goal, but the goal never changes, and ownership really only has to answer to itself. What they say goes, and opinions from the smaller players, such as low level employees, carry almost no weight at all.
This is almost the opposite tack of the operations of a Democratic government. Governmental leaders are responsible for making sure that the rights of every member of society are not infringed upon. The smallest players, in theory, have as much right to influence a decision as the biggest groups. Minority concerns are some of the highest priorities in a true Democracy. We cannot neglect those who disagree with us (as long as they aren't anarchists, proposing the abolition of the government). The real challenge is to determine whether a policy leads to freedom of choice for the constituency or does it trend toward the oppression by one group over another or even anarchy.
By the nature of its stated intentions, Democracy is a slow and laborious process, and not an easy task. Virtually every issue requires a compromise between opposing factions. Freedom for the populace is a much more difficult goal than profit. People have to learn to be patient with the operations of good government.