How does direct and representative democracy affect the state and local government?

Self-government can't be forced on Another Country. It just doesn't work that way. People have to want it. And it's ironic that the US is the one who is trying to install these democracies all over the place, when our own democracy is so disfunctional. The real reason we are doing this is because in order to do business with these countries we need to be dealing with governments that are friendly to our corporate interests. Saddam wasn't playing ball with our oil companies, so we overthrew him. We did a similar thing in Venezuela a couple years ago for the same reasons. US sponsored coup overthrows a popularly elected government that refuses to deal with our oil companies and replaces it with a new government that is willing. Does that sound like a government that really cares about spreading democracy?

As for our own democracy, I don't think electoral reform - direct democracy rather than representative democracy - would change things all that much. But after the last presidential election, when the electoral college system backfired on us and Bush got elected despite getting fewer votes, it seems obvious that we should get rid of that antequated system. That little technicality was never supposed to come up. But it did and no one did anything about it! Probably because it worked in favor of those in power, the republican party.

Media reform is more important. The horrible state of the news media is the main reason people are so uninformed, and so uninterested in politics. This leads to corruption since no one in power is ever held responsible for their crimes. These issues are deep and complex. I suggest checking out this thread and the writings mentioned in it, especially Bob McChesny's... http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30172

I think the key to the people regaining control of our government, is the spread of information - the truth. If people really knew what was going on they wouldn't stand for it. That's why the government goes so far out of their way to keep the truth from us.