Even the current system would work much better if you implemented minimum requirements to vote. Examples: - Minimum 35 years old; - Minimum 10 years of salary/work, no matter the income; - Married for at least 5 years and minimum 2 kids; - IQ >= 100; - Ability to shoot, do push-ups/sit-ups/squats, have your own gun, be willing to go to war for your country; - Own property. Basically be a functional adult.

Hmmmm. 35 years old? I know a lot of people older than that who are smug, irresponsible and ignorant. But there are also curious and original-thinking teens in the world. Honestly, I don't think lowering voting age to 12 would harm any Western country, that's about the age the median voter stopped growing up. Minimum ten years work is unfortunately easily gamed; most politicians today have never had a productive-economy job. Married five years is harder to game, I'll admit, and kids more so again. The ancient Romans delayed a lot of privileges in this way. IQ tests are trivially gamed, read up on how they are normed vis different populations and you will never take them seriously again. Raven's Matrices have much more temporal and cross-cultural stability, much better choice, but even then there are many shrewd, experienced blue-collar types who would fail this hurdle; and many bright-but-unwise who would pass. Me in my youthful Social Democrat phase, for one :p Abilities: yeah that's how many ancient tribal democracies worked. But defining which weapons and which exercises matter is tricky in an age of drones and joysticks. Owning property is an ancient tradition, too, but is gamable - what if I own one sq ft? Some British islands game residency this way.

We can always discuss if 35 or 30 years old, IQ 100 or 90, minimum property size etc, but there must be minimum requirements. I know a lot of people that drive well after drinking a bottle of wine, still the system takes into account that way too many people drive recklessly after drinking. A requirement will always find a good exception left out, and we either accept it or we keep using systems as they are now.

I meant: Age is a noisy signal. Could still be useful in a points-based system, but if it were actually as useful as people expect the West wouldn't be like this. IQ tests are normed to erase gender and cultural differences, and the result is mostly noise, not "g". Useless, or nearly so. Any restriction that can be gamed will be. And those that game it best will be organised political factions, to enfranchise their fan club and disenfranchise everybody else. A losing game, don't play, Representative Democracy is just a circus fronting for tyranny. Direct democracy degenerates into circus too when people are asked to vote on matters they feel no personal stake in. Less government is the best remedy. Less, and local. Protocols, not platforms, and markets, not monopolies.