An idea I had for a more democratic America.
I believe that the form of government that we have in the United States is pretty neat. Three branches of government, neat balances of power, impeachment, etc. etc.
But more recently, I have been disappointed with the caliber of people who get appointed to office, and their behavior once elected. Due to the practicalities of modern politics, a politician has to work on getting re-elected, even if at the cost of doing a bad job with his elected position.
So why not pick people for office randomly, like for jury duty? People that run for office could be selected out of a pool of citizens that finish high school (or college), and are not felons. A computer would pick 10 people at random for each elected office, and you'd have an election.
There's no running for 2nd term, so there's no reason to do a good job except for posterity. And isn't that the best reason to govern?
One would have to come up with a bunch of extra rules to make it work, but it has to be about as good as the system we have now, with the additional bonus that money can't buy you influence. That, I think, is the main problem with government today. (Not that elected people are taking money, but they have to take campaign contributions in order to mount a successful election campaign. Money is more important now than the ability to govern. I'm not particularly anti-George W. Bush, but he does make a nice example.)