America came as close as it ever did to embodying its ideals as stated in the Preamble of the good old US Constitution: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. And people who considered themselves above We The People didn't like that.

Direct Democracy here also helps. I really like having the ability to vote on laws directly. I know lots of smart people would disagree. Like many say that Prop 13 screwed California. But I think Direct Democracy breaks the 2 party system a bit and at least feels like a check on politicians.

@skeet i agree, but wouldn't that also imply that: (1) "normal people" cannot really follow such discussions or contribute to them (because "they're anyway incapable of thinking in the realms of the big bonzos") and (2) we cannot hope to educate people so that they can really work with these dimensions (big numbers)? i mean, yes they're unconceivably large, and so we simply need appropriate tools to handle these numbers, if we want to participate.