Democracy is flawed. We all know that.
Direct Democracy is possible, but refused upon the grounds that it would require to remove the current people in charge from their powerful positions.
And, furthermore, the majority is never always right.
You'd need something like a 'Council of Logical and Extremely Intelligent Gentlemen' chosen on their merits, not on their beautiful faces or honey-filled words.
Like, take the guys with the most high IQ, who have Masters and Degrees in specific areas of Economy and Engineering, or Mathematics, and make sure there is one of these 'super-smart guys' per nation.
There, problem solved.
Do people think about applying that? No. Why? Good question. I'm sure someone should have proposed this already.
This misses out on a key point: human nature. Just because you happen to be smart, doesn't mean you're the best person for a job. Someone might have knowledge, but if they don't have the wisdom/ethics/morality to put it to good use, are they necessarily any better at running a country than someone who hasn't been to university for years? An example of this would be the founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson, of whom it is always pointed out left school with no A-levels.
This also rules out the vast majority of people for being in a position to influence politics because not everyone has the means or ability (or should I say patience?) to go through compulsory education and then go on to complete a degree course, a masters course and a phd course. One of the appealing things about democracy is that
anyone can stand for a position in government.
Admittedly I'm taking this from a leftist standpoint, I believe everyone is equal irrespective of education, money etc. so the idea irks me a little. Although I'm very critical of democracy, it's probably the best form of government we've got right now. It just needs some safeguards, like being able to petition for someone's removal should they prove to be ineffective or corrupt.
In saying that, I'm all for
minimum intelligence tests, or at least something to stop ignorant people like
this standing for elections.