(Partially) in response to Jeremy

"In the U.S. the decisions are voiced by the people." This is true. The majority of the masses is what defines who can do what. However, the thing about masses and mobs is that they can be manipulated just like individuals can. This is how the Presidency can be bought - it's a simple matter of having enough money to make yourself look good and the other fellow look bad. "If the institutions of Poland and the Balkans were based on democratic principles instead of Machiavellian principles, those territories would not be so low down on the "cultural gradient" or the political gradient, in terms of their political stability as they have been historically." The sole reason for nations such as Poland being in the middle to lower-end of the so-called cultural and political gradients is not, I believe, that they weren't democracies. I believe that they were victims of circumstance and the way the world developed. I agree with my teacher of two years ago who once told the class that the theoretical best government is a monarchy. This is true. Not a tyrannical monarchy, where everyone has to get up every day and you can't see yourself naked or whatever, but one more like the sort of thing that the Duke Atreides establishes in "Dune: House Atreides." This is a rapport with the people. Their love of the ruler leads them to be much more devoted. Anyway, a mismanaged country now leads to decline later. Just because it's a democracy/republic doesn't mean it won't get mismanaged.