i think it would be neat to be ruled over by a council of benevolent scientists, or perhaps a philosopher king. democracy just seems like a bad idea and it hasn't been working very well. if it's a popularity contest then we just get charismatic populists and demagogues.
the only way i think democracy would work is if we give animals the right to vote. I think with some technology we could figure out how to teach dogs and horses and dolphins to vote, that would be a good start. then maybe have like a council of tree experts and plant enthusiasts to represent the interests of plants in all votes.
I tried making an askchapo post about that, you can check out some of the links people posted to it.
getting slapped with the multi-volume edition of "Socialism With Chinese Characteristics"
Okay, yes, fine. Although, that's a bit different from the news-of-the-day trickle feed of history we get from modern western media.