Is representative government valuable, or only valuable for the things it provides?

[Vesayen]

Do you think representative government is valuable, or only so valuable as the things it tends to provide?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, combined with the fact that I think i've come to the conclusion the entire political process in the united states is either fraudulent or unrepresentative of the will of the people, or the voters, or all of the above.

[Sir Og]

I thought about representative governments the other day. And it seems that they don't work. The main problem is that there is no accountability for the elected people.

Another thing which is probably even more important is that the voting process never leads to the election of competent and honest representatives.

[Lorizael]

It is quite good at serving the powerful interests in a country. "Powerful interests" vary from place to place, but generally include those with lots of money.

[BlackCat]

Depends - if the people are so smart that they elect the persons with the right opinions, it's good, but when they are so stupid the elect those with the wrong opinions, it's not good.

[Sir Og]

The people are always stupid or uninformed or apathic.

[Lorizael]

It's true.

[Arrian]

And this all leads back to Churchill's comment. For all its flaws, ladies and gents, it's the best we've come up with yet.

-Arrian

[BlackCat]

Actually, Monarcy works better for me.

(that is in C3C )

[Sir Og]

I was thinking about technocracy. Is it possible to make it work?

Does anybody know of any attempts in history to implement something similar.

[BlackCat]

I don't think that is possible without making it a dictatorship. You would have to strip people from personal opinions to implement such a rule.

The closest to such a system I can find is tribal elders and the romans election of a dictator in crises.

[Sir Og]

I am not sure if it is called technocracy but what I imagine is a system where all jobs that are currently held by politicians are simply open for the most qualified person.
The population will only need to set some very general guidlines via referendums.

[Lorizael]

Meritocracy...?

[Sir Og]

Maybe that is more correct term

[BlackCat]

Nice idea, but how are you going to prevent it all ends up in the same kind of democracy we have now ?

[Lorizael]

By killing anyone who so much as mentions the word democracy! Iron fisted rule to crush the non-meritocratic rebels!