And then there's the british who haven't even managed to abolish monarchy yet

Maybe republics don't work. Maybe it just creates a permanent, insufficiently accountable, political class that has to sell out the people to retain power.

My solution, and you are going to laugh, Switzerland. You should be laughing because Switzerland is labeled a republic. But it's not a pure republic. It has significantly more direct democracy. The mechanisms provided by a republic alone just don't do the thing they are labeled as doing. It doesn't give you politicians that are accountable to you. It just doesn't.

Or maybe we should just let Switzerland expand slowly into France. Not by war. But by recognizing a better model is worth growing. And France shouldn't feel threatened by it. If the politicians represented the people they should be happy for every French that finds himself with a better life on the other side of a border. Richer too because property value will go up the second the line moves. But politicians don't care about the people. They seek power. And loss of land is fewer people to have power over. So they would throw a fit. But that fit would only prove the point that those politicians don't have your interests, so it's proof the boarder should move.

Let's grow Switzerland by 3% a year, as long as it has higher quality of life associated with it and is growing a smaller country into a large one. That creates competition that would actually incentive politicians. It would end up being a self-failing prophecy. France would improve with better incentives, tying what politicians want (authority) to what we want (better lives). And then it would stop being necessary. Then people can go back to lying to themselves about pure republics working.