A "representative democracy" is one specifically where the average voter doesn't need to be informed enough to really understand all the issues, and that's supposed to be its advantage. In contrast, direct democracy is best when all the voters (have the time to) understand the issues. But that's not very pragmatic, so we do representative democracy. But of course, that has its own issues, as what to understand moves from "the issues" to "the candidates".
Somehow, this reminded me of this bit by Douglas Adams From "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish" (in part):
"They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much
assume that the government they've voted in more or
less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again,
"why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said
Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"