Dying are the days when politicians were servile before a spoilt public in order to squeeze their votes so they could spend another term of stashing their trouser pockets full of tax payers money. Dying are the days when the vote of respectable, politically active citizens was the same as politically lazy junkies. Dying are the days when one could get a position of power simply by being related to someone else. Dying are the days when people would vote politicians in and just leave them to stash more cash, not being any more involved.
All this is going to change, hopefully.
For there is a better, if unrefined, way.
The way is not to be found in the dictatorships of the Far East or the absolute monarchies of the Middle East. Neither is it to be found in Switzerland or the Low Countries. It is not to be found in the physical Earth, but in the realms of cyberspace. It is not to be found in the mindless anarchy of Wikipedia, nor the totalitarianism of private websites. Where is it to be found, the answer is our very Everything2.
When Nathan Oostendorp and the rest created Everything and later Everything2, they probably didn't think that there simple idea of making a reference site that contained every piece of data that can be known, some useful, some not, would result in their images being paraded down the streets to the tune of the International (but with less communist lyrics). For in my opinion, the staffing of E2, along with the XP system, is an unrefined but almost perfect example of a Meritocratic system. If you replace the nodes with bills and acts, and the write ups with clauses, you can already see how this can be used as a political method.
Think about, a system where you have to earn the right to vote. A system in which anyone can write a bill for approval, and get points for every clause that is accepted. A system presided over by an all powerful cabinet and their civil servants. A system where those devoted to politics can actually get more power than those that aren't.
Yes there are flaws, it can be susceptible to cronyism, it has been known to spontaneously break down into uncontrollable flame war which in a political setting would result in civil war. But these are all technicalities that can be refined, the basic principle is wonderful.
So, who's with me?