governments are all about representation - they claim to work in the name of, and to the benefit of, the people they govern. leaving aside the majority of the time that that is a lie (ie, corruption, incompetence, conflicting agendas, etc), even in the best case scenarios what representation does is to deny and prohibit people's agency, our willingness and capacity to act for ourselves, based on our own understanding of what is the right thing to do, and when, and to or with whom, etc.
the situation in louisiana with hurricane katrina is a classic case in point. police and military did not act in the interest of the hurricane survivors, and tried to stop people from helping each other.
(also, you should tag this question with something, perhaps "advantages"?)
