Given technological enablement, why cant govt be more run as a StackOverflow tempered by the elder wisdom of the Supreme Court? Rip the executive branch out and make the president more of a city manager than the political emperor. Absolute power corrupts...
Maybe. But we could have a constitutional direct democracy (to provent the policies which would make us unhappy), in addition to having smaller countries. In the UK, for example, making the counties into states like in the USA, but with direct democracy and rather than having a centeralised government for the whole country have a EU-like meeting as though they were seperate countries. It's a merky idea, but that's what I'm currently in favor for. We should be able to call a referendum to get rid of certain laws but maybe the government should continue to create the laws as means of reducing idiocracy (like in Switzerland, but even that has dumb laws being passed sometimes, but it by far has more personal freedom than in UK/USA in my opinion).
I hope that makes sense, I'm not good with english.
I'm not sure what a StackOverflow that has the ability to take action would look like...though judging by HN's frequent unhappiness with SO's moderation actions, I'm thinking it would not be optimal.
The way the system works today politicians bribe the public with their own tax dollars and in so doing get to hold onto power and the perks thereof. But even if we make it more direct the problem of people funneling the government trough into their own mouths, to the detriment of society, will still exist and, if anything, be even worse. And that's aside from the explosion of bureaucracy and regulation which has happened and continues to happen which is also a big part of the mess we're in.
Edit: Also I should mention that a lot of the aspects of the system works today which seem like defects (gridlock, slowness, etc.) are there by design. The system is designed so that gridlock is typical and to have a lot of friction on big changes. That ensures that the power of the government isn't subject to random vicissitudes, fads, or slight changes in the balance of power. It takes consistent majorities in public opinion over periods of time to translate into action, or very large majorities to translate into action quickly.