So, what country's gov't is best in representing it's people?

[woodsprite]

Because the US is losing status, and has been for quite awhile.

[cliffordu]

1. cuba

[Mika]

3. Yep. Been there. Seen it.

Ordinary citizens can, and do, run for office and all elected reps are subject to bi-annual accountability/recall elections.

[cliffordu]

15. We need that here.

[Rageneau]

5. There are still lands of the free and homes of the brave -- just not here.

[tuckessee]

2. There are none.

If you want one that does you'll have to create your own.

[PATRICK]

4. Our pathetic model

has been stretched to absurdity and illegitimacy so much that comparing it to the accepted, less dramatic
examples of other nations it also casts them in a bad, cynical light. Unfortunately both our assertions that we are the greatest or worst are likely over emotional. We have capitalist, over corporatized, unhealthily globalized governments, communist governments, mediocre bureaucrats, lazy tyrants and a very few idealists. The means of public sharing of information is tainted and unreliable compared to its modern potential, the parties homogenized by money interests except for ethno/religious parties(probably part of the picture of why Islam and the rest of the world are supposed to be at odds). Voting machinery world wide is likely compromised at least enough for Humpty Dumpty parity contests to be managed by outside oligarchs. The whole left/right thing sometimes appears to follow the jaundiced model of our own two super parties.

I suspect the more a nation is liberated or disadvantaged from being unduly affected by big money interests the more it is capable of populist representation. Hence the sardonic remark about Cuba.

Yes, the world needs another revolution, no communists need apply.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. As Tom Paine said.

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."
Thomas Paine

Unfortunately, the people have yet to find our government intolerable.

[TheWatcher]

11. What should horrify you even more is what they might be content to go along with

As things spiral downward.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. As a card carrying cynic, I fully expect that they will.

[elehhhhna]

7. The Netherlands.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. One with a fairness doctirine, publicly funded elections, no lobbyists, ranked voting on paper, and

multiple parties which are proportionally represented in a congress or parliament that keeps the "unitary executive" in check.

If you find one, please let me know?

[baldguy]

9. The best govt is one that is afraid of its people

and must please them to survive.

[bdamomma]

10. I only wish we could make our government afraid of us.

maybe we have already since they want to spy on us, but we have a coward and criminal in the WH.

[baldguy]

13. America's model wouldn't be the Netherlands

It would be Chile under Pinochet or Argentina under Peron.

[CBGLuthier]

12. Switzerland

Actions of the parliment can easily be overturned by a vote of the people, they have four parties that have shared power for almost 50 years.

They are a lot better at the "direct democracy" game than this country has or will ever be.