Western governments are bureaucratic autocracies. (Edit: I'm not even being cynical here, it's just a bit of reality, the word 'autocracy' makes it sound harsh

Western governments are bureaucratic autocracies. (Edit: I'm not even being cynical here, it's just a bit of reality, the word 'autocracy' makes it sound harsh but it is what it is - most important things happened behind closed doors and not even by politicians) Public sentiment and elections have little influence over most things unless there is 'outrage' or some kind of 'focus' on an issue. A 'few key issues' drive public narrative and votes, but the gears are run by the bureaucracy. What we get in democracy is mostly just the ability to pull the plug on groups, and the ability to outrage over some new bit of information about the system. Much less so setting the overall direction. Or rather, we 'kind of influence that' by having a 'rough idea over who is in charge, politically'. The cronyism problem is mostly solved with transparency and making sure the general public understands. There are a handful of very 'standard ways' that corruption happens - frankly we should be teaching this in school. A certain 'recent former president' bought a home in Florida for $20M, then sold it 2 years later for $90M to a Russian oligarch. (Before this person was president). That is 'perfectly legal' - however, regular people should understand that transactions that happen above or below market value signal something. It's like a 'gift'. A better way to look at that, is a 'Russian oligarch' gave someone who is now a 'former President' a 'gift' of $50M dollars. It's irrational for people to just hand over huge sums to other people for no reason. Ergo - there's probably a quid-pro-quo, which can come in many forms. It can be to influence policy directly, softly, in a specific direction, a general direction. Insider Trading is another example. It's not obvious why or how that works, but it's not complicated. How the 'Art World' can be a big fraud/scam (in an illegal way). Teenagers can be taught this, and frankly I think it would be an entertaining course that they would really pay attention to.