DPOS can function well as global money standard.
This can be achieved by explicitly defining a supply curve or lack thereof. It can also become implicit just by sticking to a certain system for a long period of time.
While you can't define what future shareholder consensus will be, once the market defines you as having a defined supply & uses you as a money, then changing it results in a catastrophic loss of value. (Lost trust, confidence and certainty of future supply expectations.)
Despite being only a few months old and still not established, the dilution of BTSX and the resultant significant value loss was a demonstration of not adhering to this principle in practice.
Now that BTS has a supply curve that can be used to meet the majority of its needs and the market is aware of the cost of changing the rules, the probability that future shareholders will change the existing system is extremely low. Over time and with enough examples of the price you pay, all DPOS blockchains will eventually be trained to never change the rules if they wish to function as a money.
(Undefined supply company shares can still function as a form of payment, but they don't get widely adopted on a large scale as a money.)
In terms of DPOS voting, I guess we could look at public company voting trends.
http://www.pwc.com/en_US/us/corporate-governance/publications/assets/pwc-proxypulse-april-2014.pdfI don't know how useful that is, first thing that came up but on page 3, I think it says that public companies seem to end up being owned by a fairly even mix of institutional and retail investors.
Institutional investors vote with a majority of their shares, up to 90%, and retail investors only about 30%. This seems to still result in high voting numbers while giving smaller investors the ability to be less involved and yet have the blockchain still run smoothly.
I suspect DPOS chains will also introduce a range of incentives and mechanisms to encourage voter participation as in the case of a decentralized crypto-currency, greater involvement adds value.