Minnesota: What's the fair market price for democracy?

In today's editorial, "A price for everything, nothing for nothing", the Pioneer Press says:

"A weakness of democracy is that it encourages politicians to try to seduce us with the promise of something for nothing, even though most people know better....

...Among the candidates for the endorsement of the Independence Party of Minnesota — Gov. Jesse Ventura's old party — is Peter Hutchinson, a former state finance director and Minneapolis schools superintendent. Ken Pentel, endorsed by the Green Party, is a thoughtful candidate...."

And essentially they would like for voters to hear from all the candidates, but mostly the major party candidates, one of whom will surely be the next governor.

Well, for my money, it's not a weakness of democracy that encourages politicians to make empty promises. It's the parties that encourage politicians to make empty promises to get votes to get elected.

Doesn't democracy have something to do with citizen participation? Political parties have become the antithesis of participation by ordinary people - in fact, they prevent our participation in many ways from unfair ballot access laws to corrupt poll watchers to giving us bad candidates.