How about this alternative:

Back to the ancient Greeks,not to mention the jury system. People should be allowed to sign up, by paying $10.00 to a lottery, indicating their willingness to be decision-makers for a year. They would have to pass a simple competence test (more than GWBush ever did), not be too lunatic (more than Richard Nixon ever did), or senile (Ronald Reagan). The $10 million dollar prize would be paid to each of the 100 winners, $100 thousand each as salary. They would be the legislators. Think of the new perspectives, the interesting debates, the possibility that any citizen could have a real say in running the country. 100 would mean that the law of averages would flatten out the looneys.

Worse than the present system? I don't think so.

yours, Peter T.