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Hovstad has the power and the means democracy and the editorship of the newspaper is giving him to do the right thing and prevent people from getting ill. Instead, he decides to do the exact opposite. His political aspirations, as noble as they may appear to him, are his weakness. He will be easily convinced that the right thing to do was to prevent the truth from being outspoken. He will thus agree to treat the interests of those closer and more important for his political future, the townspeople, as primary compared to the interests of those who might get soaked in the polluted soup. He is the perfect political animal, who will accept any compromise for the so called greater good. Because he has the power to do the right thing and not risk anything he doesn't already have, he sounds as the most despicable of them all.

The theme of the people's right to speak up is relevant to the idea of democracy because it touches two essential features of democracy: the individual's freedom to sepak and the people's right to know the truth. First and foremost, democracy means the ruling by the people, for the people. The local, democratically elected government, theoretically represents people's will and trust. It has the power and the means to express it and see that it is respected. There are moral and philosophical questions that the characters are discussing, questions that have not found a definitive answer yet. It sounds pretty straightforward on paper: the health of even one human is more important that the economic means of a community. On the other hand, it is much more complicated in reality. With today's hindsight, one is more inclined to agree that people like Hovstad have more chances to succeed than those like Dr. Stockmann have. The developed world lives better now, but at the global scale, things are far from being balanced. Corrupted leaders and civil wars aside, Ibsen was right to assume that the welfare of the community will count as more important that that of a few individuals, therefore, inconvenient truths will easily find well-intended politicians or aspiring politicians who will use their power to hide them. Dr. Stockman, the eternal Don Quixote, the beholder of the truth, is fighting the windmills. He is destined to loose his battle because people are more inclined to listen and approve of those they proudly put in office, instead of making the effort and try to see the bigger and complete picture. As a matter of convenience, of shortsightedness, of laziness or even worse, of stupidity, the majority can be wrong. On the other side, Ibsen showed that superiority in spirit that lacks the support of humbleness, reasoning and patience will not succeed in supporting a community either.

Ibsen, H. McFarlane, J. An Enemy of the People; The Wild Duck; Rosmersholm. Oxford University Press, 1999