Answer:
Democratic participation creates a number of obvious benefits for the rulers of a country. It bolsters their ability to impose totalitarian policies upon its citizenry with little or no resistance to repressive and violent tactics. It provides a preemptive form of mass consent, which lends credibility to the leaders chosen as proxy for the elites, while shielding the actual rulers from public scrutiny. It insures that an angry citizenry will turn its anger to fellow citizens instead of toward the ruling class. The obvious benefit to the rulers is an unbroken, unending grip on power.
Democratic participation fosters the preemptive acceptance of whatever policies are instituted by the elected, and creates mass tolerance for oppression. Wars of conquest, mass incarceration, and economic slavery all become facts of life for a citizenry content to vote every few years for big changes in how their leaders conduct their crony capitalism and rapacious military adventures. The benefit is unchecked to the handful of elites shielded by the democratic smoke and mirrors.
Because of democratic participation, rulers are able to ruin untold numbers of lives while neutralizing any tendency among the ruled to form an active resistance to tyranny. Rulers are free to criminalize any activity that threatens their grip on power, while democratic participation reinforces an impotent opposition to only minor details. It reduces civil disobedience to election time activism consisting of social media posts encouraging dissenters to proudly cast their vote in a few years instead of taking to the streets. It creates a convenient way for dissenters to channel their anger at fellow citizens instead of at power elites, freeing the elites to focus on economic supremacy and military conquest.
