Democrats often had mixed feelings about the rise of government bureaucracy. They worried about the legitimacy of handing aspects of government over to unelected officials, although many of them accepted that democracy could still operate provided there were clear lines of accountability to ensure the officials were answerable to elected politicians and so ultimately to the people. Equally, they often thought that bureaucracy was necessary because of the range of specialized tasks that governments had to perform. It is difficult to imagine elected politicians dealing with the complexities of patent law, or even economic policy, without the help of expert advisers.