How do we ensure decent government in small countries?

Paul, with respect, there's a wealth of assumptions in that question.

For a start, who's "we"? The West, the US, the UK? Europe? What right do we actually have to ensure any kind of government in any country other than our own?

And then there's the question of the word "decent"? Too often, the US, the UK and Europe assume that our way of life and government is the "right" one - the only one - the model to which all other nations must aspire. And it's this assumption which causes many problems.

We often consider that form of our Western democracy is the "best" way for a country to run itself, which ignores the ethnicity, custom and history of that country. I appreciate that the question may be, in part, rhetorical, and I would rephrase it as: How do we help another country, if requested, to create an appropriate government and infrastructure for that country?

It saddens me to read, for example, that a Major Power has installed a puppet regime to ensure stability in a third-world country. That "stability" is almost certainly for the convenience of the Major Power than the country itself.