I call my preferred form of government Council Democracy, as it is based off a system of workers' councils. It's very similar to Syndicalism, in that it's based off the workplace. Basically, it looks like this:
All the workers in a given workplace (i.e. a factory, retail outlet, farm, and also the armed forces) are members of their Workplace Council. Each Workplace Council governs the affairs of its members inside the workplace. It is a forum where members can air grievances, suggest changes, and basically speak about any relevant subject. If a change is to be adopted, it must be approved by a simple majority vote. The members also elect one of their number to speak for their workplace at the Industrial Council. This member is recall-able at any time.
The Industrial Council is made up of these representatives from the Workplace Council, and represents all the workers in a particular industry. There might be a Farm Workers' Council, a Steelworkers' Council, a Soldier's Council, etc. The main responsibility of this level of Council is to ascertain the productive capacity of each workplace, and to disseminate beneficial changes from one workplace to another. For example, if workplace A adopts a more efficient system, the Industrial Council exists so every other workplace in that industry can learn about and implement this change. The Industrial Council then elects one of its members to the Executive Council. This representative is recall-able at any time.
The Executive Council is empowered to concoct the national economic plan based on the information provided by the Workplace and Industrial Councils about productive capacity. That is, it sets goals to the workplaces on how much they will produce. Individual Workplace Councils may withhold their productive capacity if they feel the demands placed upon them are unreasonable. If this happens, the Executive Council is expected to moderate its demands, though it may not demand less than the Workers Council felt to be its productive capacity (see second paragraph). It also oversees fair distribution of resources, and surplus resources (minimum resource allocation to individuals is decided by the Industrial Councils) are remanded to itself. With these surplus resources, it may perform all the functions of a national government.
This system is meant to be as democratic as possible, and reflects the fact that political power stems from productive power. It is a Federal system, I guess, but the federated entities are not geographic states, but are instead very small productive units.
Also, Myroria's criticism of democracy two posts ago assumes that both citizens and representatives are morons. Historically, if a democracy feels it's been attacked, it responds incredibly quickly. Look at the Mexican War. The United States wasn't even attacked on its soil (the soil was disputed at best), its army was far smaller than Mexico's, it was totally unprepared, even though it had faced a major diplomatic crisis only months before (over Oregon), and yet it won the war. Why? Because democracies can respond quickly, and because procedure, bureaucracy, and lengthy debate are consigned to peacetime. If a people is attacked, it knows to fight back immediately, and with all of its strength.
Now, you're completely right that democracies are incredibly reluctant to take part in aggressive or preemptive war, and those wars are correctly subjected to long debate and popular input, both before and after they are entered into. But I see this as a good thing. Don't you?
Poll