Is Democracy Like Sex? Glen Reynolds thinks so, but not in the way you may be thinking — in the way that evolutionary biologists think of sex, as a way to mix up the genes in the gene pool to confound parasites:
My thought has been that elections play the same role for the body politic that sex plays for the body physical: Every so often, the voters throw the rascals out, and vote in a new set of rascals, meaning that the special interest groups, lobbying outfits, etc., that parasitize the body politic have to adapt to a shifting target. As scientist Thomas Ray has said, one rule of nature is that every successful system accumulates parasites. The American political system has been successful for a long time.