I submit: The US government in the period 1786-1824. The government still worked reasonably well, with ups and downs, until 1928.

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None love freedom heartily, but good men; others love not freedom, but license.
- John Milton

Even considering that the Gov't was run by the Land-owning white man for the land-owning white man and and no one else? Nevermind, it's the same way today.

-Demosthenes

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"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

I really didn't expect such a gratuitous comment from you.

Maybe in the past the USA was a country for rich, white, landowning men, but not any more. Now its a country where a diverse group of special interests compete in the buying of elected officials. Not just rich , landowning white men either although there are a lot of corporate special interest. But you also have labor special interests, trial lawyers, the teacher's union, the religous groups, the anti-religous groups, women's groups, black groups, seniors groups & many, many more.

Everyone is pushing their own miopic view of the perfect world by buying or coercing any politician they can get their hands on. Now that I think about it, the expansion of groups who can purchase political support for their special interest is probably one of the very best examples of a progression towards diversity that I can imagine.

Ok, it was sort of a cheap shot, but you can't argue the fact that the majority of our law making body consists of wealthy white guys.

As far as many different groups pursuing their agendas being a good way to achieve diversity, I would probaly agree with you except for one thing. I am willing to bet that there are numerous politicians taking money from both sides of certain issues promising to help each one, but nothing really gets done. And what you proprose with the Special Intersts groups means that only those groups with the money to influence politicians will be the ones who are represented. What about groups who can't afford to pay?

-Demosthenes

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"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Our laws are made largely by wealthy, white males, but we are seeing incremental improvements. Over time, if we do the right thing with respect to education, I think we will see an increasingly representative mix in power positions.

As for the special interests without any clout, of course they do not get a thing. They never have and probably never will. My point was to say the diversity of special interests who can put their agenda above the common interests has grown. It now includes racial, social, religous and economic groups who did not have a voice before. As such, it is an excellent example of the growing diversity of power in the USA.

Just because its an incomplete work in progress does not mean its a failure.

I know it's a bit off topic, but that is why I takea great interest in a strong party political system. This is where each party lists their candidates in order according to their rank in the party. Instead of voting for a candidate, you vote for a party. If there a 100 seats in a legislating body and one party gets 47% of teh vote, then the top 47 people on the list of that party gets seats. In a structure such as this you can have quotas to persuade parties to run tickets that are relfective of their demographic.

-Demosthenes

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"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

It sounds to me like a version of Sams club for the special interests. They can go to one place and buy everything they need instead of spending thier money with a bunch of little guys.

I guess you could call that a form of improved efficiency.

Well I see it as a way to gurantee diversity. It also gives smaller parties a shot at participating in Gov't. In our case, perhaps a party like the Green Party may earn a couple of seats in Congress.

-Demosthenes

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"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Just want to say, that I canNOT wait until the day when the Green Party finally gains enough steam to really take off. That's all...thanks.

Hell, I can't wait for the day when ANY third party gains enough steam to win seats in congress.

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Proudly a "South Park Republican"