Regular Elections, Broad Suffrage, Freedom of Speech and the Press

Regular elections, broad suffrage, freedom of speech and the press, and freedom to join or form political organizations are significant because ______.

A) they ensure that government leaders can simply do their jobs without worrying about public opinion
B) they mean that government leaders always know precisely what the public's opinion is
C) they compel government leaders to take the public's opinion into account if they want to keep their jobs
D) they are mechanisms through which the government distracts the public from policy