Post-Democracy

Where do we go from here?  I think it's pretty plain to see that democracy fails to protect us from an authoritarian centralised body of power.  Instead the worlds democratic systems have seized more & more power over the past century, simply to pander to every possible insecurity they can convince the public of.  The emergence of a power hungry  EU & the perseverance of Federal over State level law in the USA are just two examples of this decaying systems failure.

I suppose we have let this happen to ourselves, perhaps democracy requires a constantly vigilant populace, in which case we have only ourselves to blame.  But there are those of us who have resisted & attempted to convince the public of the dangers created by large government and who certainly don't deserve the same fate as the muppets who followed the blind over a cliff.  So what is the next step in governmental evolution, how do we improve upon the failures of democracy?  Personally I would see the whole pointless farce of government demolished but I doubt many others are so willing to give up their hard fought 'right to vote'.

Probably the most popular idea is localisation, make politicians more accountable and implement decisions by & for local people.  As good as this sounds it doesn't solve the problem of an overburdening central body and depends on just how far are people willing to take the idea of localisation.  Who decides taxation, crime/defence policies or personal liberty laws (drugs, sex, driving requirements, etc)?  Surely having local people decide on exactly what goes on in their surrounding area produces the happiest constituents, but then aren't we just talking about splitting the country up into smaller allied countries/states?

That sounds fine to me but the USA has shown that this doesn't really work to well in practise, at first it was a huge success don't misunderstand me, but the Federal/central government found a way to claw power away from the local level which has resulted in the nations current predicament.  If we are to learn anything from this century it is that we must do away with a central body of government as even limiting it by a set of rules (written constitution) doesn't seem to stop the monster's advance.

But then if we are dividing down into smaller local states how small do we go?  County, town or village size?  Surely the most satisfactory democracy, from the voters point of view, is one where a single vote has the biggest impact (you can see where I'm going with this), which essential would involve ruling over your own life and making your own decisions.  Oh look Anarchy, wonderful we made it, what a success; no government & total control over your own life.

On the other hand perhaps we may only get as far as limited localisation (which is still an improvement so I'd take it), or perhaps a system of digital referendums on all issues (no more MPs) or an altogether more bizarre system.  I suppose the real question is when, when do we finally free ourselves from this debacle and try something new?  I'm free tomorrow, how about you?