And in other news, scientists have also proven that everyone living below the poverty line has an income less than that of the average American.

oh it will help with accountability. Right now washington is all the way accross the country for me. if i want to make change happen there all i can do is vote. While Sacramento is far from me, I can still drive there in a day and be heard by some body. Also on state and local levels there are far more options than dem or repub. they are still the big two, but othere parties actually stand a chance at state and local levels. My hope is someday for sttes to take power from the feds, than counties from the state, than cities from the counties, and hopefully by than things will be better. I doubt it would happen but you never know.

In other news, illuminati is controlling the world with the freemasons and George Bush planned 9/11.

ITT: Tin foil hats.

Well at least it isn't the politicans that control america, that would totally screw you over.

I guess you're right.

Even people in former eastern germany with its one-party-system believed to be living in a democracy, because that's what they were told, they had a (completely pointless) election every couple of years, and the country's official name contained the word "democratic"...

Well the difference is between this and those is that the examples you gave out are ridiculous and really have no solid base. The US being an oligarchy is not that out of the question especially since it happened before about 100 years ago.

Well, it would seem to follow that the closer your proximity to power, the more accountable that power is to you. At this point, there are entire states which are which don't really matter in national politics because they so reliably elect representatives for one party and always vote a certain way in presidential elections. They are reduced to being one tiny piece of a coalition.

As for the party thing, it's rather less poisonous at the state or local level. For example, you still have a lot of state representatives and senators who are conservative Democrats while they are pretty much extinct on the national level because when a Democratic politician wants to get anywhere with the national party, he has to adopt all or at least most of the Democratic orthodoxy. In a lot of ways, the moment a politician steps up to the national level he ceases to represent his state or district and becomes just another cog in his party's machine.

Plus, if power is devolved to the state level then there's some momentum to continue rolling things back to the local level. Not the end goal, but definitely a step in the right direction.

I like the way you think. and you're far better at explaining things than me, and funnier too. man now i'm jealous

I see. I just see very little correlation between "proximity" and the size of Gov't. I'm sure NYC dwellers love that they are just a subway ride away from city hall... must give them so much influence over city policy.

In fact, it seems to me that some of the most crippling jurisdictions (in the West, at least) are within the cities. In the East, it's a little different... city states in South-East Asia seem to be some of the "freest" places in the world (Hong Kong, Singapore)... but those countries have very little to do with democracy.

I suppose you're right about the "party" having little influence at those lower levels. But local governance has its own issues... namely corruption and the privacy issue. At least with a large central state, you're nothing, in local governance things can get very personal.

I'm not sure what you would call the UK.

We have a house of commons is a democracy properly elected and most MPs consult with their constituents of any wealth level. However then you have the house of lords who are not elected who do get to veto some house of commons decisions which is undemocratic. Our supreme ambassador is a monarch and many of our laws and economic controls are made in mainland Europe.

It's not what I would call a proper democracy but I look around the world and I don't really see anything much better sadly. The house of lords must go though, it is completely wrong in the modern age.