What I meant was not that it was imperitive to have a representative government, but instead to have a government that doesn't consider genocide, starvation of its children, etc. to be acceptable. There have been plenty of monarchies around the world which treat their subjects much better than Saddam. I think that the general populace, myself included, does not have the time or the inclination to gather the information required to make truely informed decisions on how or by whom a nation should be run. Like I said, I haven't really come up with an effective way to implement it, but perhaps something along the lines of people who are experts in their field would elect the government representatives of that field. For example, the MDs could decide who should be the surgeon general, judges could select the supreme court, etc. I couldn't tell you who the best judges are, and you shouldn't take my word for it if I tried because I have no qualifications to make such a decision. What we have now is soundbite elections, and I refuse to believe that is the best way to govern a country.
