Top Trumps Governments

Meritocracy beats democracy?

I have been trying to find a better system of government than ours for a while now. Whilst its tempting to settle for the Churchillian view that “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried" (the last bit is often left off), Ive always felt we could do better. 

Britain & The States have slipped into a two party dipole, each party frantically trying to undo the decisions made by the other whilst in power. This leads to instability and lack of long term progress. PR based systems also seem to suffer the same outcome, if somewhat watered down by the need to compromise with smaller parties to keep power. (I'll set aside the issue of electoral reform for another time).

We also seem to be slipping more & more into populism, with the rise of image and sloganeering. I'm not sure that the majority of the electorate cares about policy details, or if they ever did, however, we are now moving ever further into the realm of fantasy politics. slogans like "Make America Great Again" without any detail of the how to do this, or even what it means doesn't lead to effective government. This is coupled by the call of "fake news" and demonising experts. 

I struggle to find a good example of socialism in practice. We all know how Russian Socialism became rapidly corrupted, and how Chineese Socialism led to the current one party autocracy present there now.

I asked Dylan (who has looked into this kind of thing) to give me examples of functioning Socialist states, and apart from Barcelona in the 30's, he mentioned :-

"the Nordic countries kind of.  There aren't many tbh because socialism is sort of impossible in a capitalist global economy. Cuba had an insane turnaround in healthcare and literacy but everything else is shit because of embargos. Any country that comes close enough to socialism gets a brand new American military based slapped on it and funnily enough the next government that steps in is right wing-pro usa."

The above video suggests that the chineese system delivers better outcomes for the population, but I'm not sure if the cost of an all pervasive controlling state is too great. This guy clearly thinks that its better.

Ive also heard that Singapore has a hybrid between these 2 choices, where elections are held, but only qualified candidates can take part.

I have long held that our politicians need to be better qualified for the roles they are appointed to. Surely the Minister for Education should have some experience or qualifications in this sector? How we actually achieve this is more problematic. Perhaps we need to look at the Singaporean model?

So, to sum up, I would like a government of qualified people, focusing on the long term good of the whole country, regardless of place in society. Where all people are treated with equal respect, and helped or taxed according to their needs or wealth. Where the government may change, to better meet the wellbeing of all. Where all have access to education, healthcare, and housing. 

I guess that biases me towards socialism as I think capitalism has now swung to serve only the desires of the wealthy. As evidence I submit Trumplestiltskins 'barking bonkers bill"