RE: Socialist Nigeria: Democracy Is Just Not Working

In a strange kind of way, it cheers me up to know it's not just here in the UK that democracy isn't working. I've always though that democracy is great as a system of government if you can take the moneyed interests out of it, and at a local level. Basically, if you can fit everyone involved into a single meeting place it's great, but above that it becomes too open to corruption and factional groups.

But I'm not a fan of socialism, either. I've seen what happens when the state runs everything. It becomes very inefficient very fast because there's no competition, and it puts too much power into the hands of unaccountable petty bureaucrats. With no class system and potentially equal wages, there is no incentive for people to better themselves; why be a brain surgeon when you can be a street sweeper on the same pay ?

Crazily enough (and I know it's not a popular opinion !), I think the best form of government may be a hereditary monarchy. You get someone in charge who has been trained from birth to do the job, and has nowhere further up the career ladder to want to climb to. They don't have to worry about being re-elected every few years, so you can get long term stable policies. As long as there is a clear rule of succession it reduces opportunities for a military coup. You still need processes in place to minimise corruption and influence, but every system needs that.