I mean we haven't found a fix more generally. We still have sayings like "Power corrupts" because we still don't have a terrific handle on how to avoid such outcomes for powerful people generally, having nothing to do with politics per se.
Probably mandatory, easy, and ranked voting plus improved education. To be honest I don't think even that's going to push people to care about their government. I think the average person sees it as too complex, too corrupt, and overall meaningless for them to be bothered to vote for, let alone learn about policies.
For example, you could ask 10 people on the street if they would like to get rid of corruption in government and most (probably all) would say emphatically "yes". I don't know how we translate that into action though and deal with the spin and whirlwind news cycle.
There are some rubrics that seem to be helpful, such as "Nothing about us without us." AKA representation matters.
But I'm not actually interested in discussing politics in this thread. I'm interested in social phenomenon, which politics happens to be a good example of.
Edit: Though I will go on record as saying I am not for mandatory voting. I have mostly not voted in my life because I have been overwhelmed by events and I am not comfortable randomly picking names at random when that act helps determine who holds positions of very real power in the world. I don't think forcing people like me to pick random names at random in any way improves anything in the world.
I think that's the problem though. It's too acceptable to say "I don't vote because it's too complicated, I'm too busy, or it's too hard". The reality is, in the U.S. at least, your country is involved in policing the world, subsidizing fossil fuels, and increasing the class gap globally (and some positive things too :)). It should be seen as a responsibility to express an opinion, even in private, by voting for or against your countries / states / regions policies to the best of your ability.
If you're working 2 jobs and barely making rent and voting is on a work day miles away... then OK. But if it's just "I can't be bothered to learn a little bit about really important shit" then you get to shoulder responsibility for your elected officials whether you like it or not.
I was a military wife. I raised and homeschooled two special-needs kids so they would have some hope of being functional. They are in their thirties and still live with me. I have an incurable medical condition that is, itself, an extremely huge burden to live with.
My plate is quite full, thank you. I wish my problems were as relatively minor as "I work two jobs." That requires a level of good health and energy I have never had and would have killed me had I ever tried it.
I stand by my opinion that it's amazingly stupid for the world to insist that everyone must give their opinion, even those who have extremely uninformed opinions for reasons largely beyond their control.
If people want to vote in spite of not doing a lot of research, I think that's fine. But please don't make me vote against my will.
OK then, I get it. Please don't take it as a personal attack. I was trying to explicitly point out that there are scenarios that make it very hard (2 jobs as an example) and I was picking on the "can't be bothered" attitude, which obviously isn't your case.
Personal comment. That's really rough, and make me feel pretty damn privileged. Kudos to you for putting in the extremely hard work!
