Quote:

elevate reason and discourse

Excellent point.
The enlightenment ideal of democracy was not that every body gets to vote for their own interest or support their party. It was the belief that with public debate, there was the greatest chance that reason would rule and policies would be reasonable.
Note that political debate and the justice system were both predicated on the belief that an adversarial system of argumentation with public decision by tally or vote best served the interest of finding the truth -- and that was also the belief behind scientific discourse.
The point is often forgotten in contemporary society.