Norway is not footing the bill as it has no money. It had to take $150M from its citizens pockets. I'm not sure how many Norwegians agreed to use that money to buy up trees. If most of them did, I guess you could say that is democracy at work. Otherwise I don't see it.
Norway is an interesting case as most of that money comes from oil reserves that where unclaimed by private individuals so it's fairly accurate to call it Norway's money.
Further, democracy is far from a simple Y/N vote on every issue. People trade favors so it's Y/N on (trees)+(healthcare)+(police)+... and you vote on those blocks. At first glance this seems worse. However people don't care about all issues equally so trading a weak no for a vary strong yes is worth it to people. In the end it's the same basis for all forms of trade as people don't value everything equally so trade ends up as a net benefit.
> Norway is not footing the bill as it has no money. It had to take $150M from its citizens pockets.
There is no difference in English. When someone says "Manchester United scored three goals", it is understood that individual players on the team so named kicked the balls into the net. Noone is under the impression that the corporation Manchester United plc pushed the balls using psychokinesis.
