I see your point. Would I, if I were to become one who was responsible for a even a city, become one who promises unattainable things just because voters demand it? I don’t know how I would actually react in that situation, but my conviction is that indeed I would become a “swaggering idiot” if I were to give in to those demands in my greed to continue to hold power. Therefore I hope that I am not that greedy that I would excuse my immoral behavior by rationalizing that it is the voters who demand that I make unattainable promises and I am just an innocent bystander compelled by others to do a dirty job.

You are an obsever , alright . Change your status and try to run a state or even a city for that matter ; whom will you blame.
In the developed countries , the intellectuals once in power , become “swaggering imbeciles” thanks to the voters who know the art of demanding unattainble promises.

Hold on there. Don’t you see that ’swaggering imbeciles’ refers to *us*?

newly educated intellectual class check
social advocacy/government bureacracy check

yes.. I know you are not in a government bureacracy, but isn’t writing/reading blogs about ‘developmental issues’ something like social advocacy? Maybe we can do useful work elsewhere, as Uncle Al suggests?