Politcal Science

I am taking a Political Science course this year, U.S. Government. And today we broke into groups and each group of about 5 students created a government for a country. We all had the same type of citizens living in our countries; good-natured, well-meaning, not so bright people for the masses, with a smaller group of similar people who were a little smarter.
We had groups who talked about a dictator-like government, some chose communist ideals, some chose democracy while others still created a Parliament-ish government. Most groups addressed the idea of security. A force of police would be present to not only protect the country from others, but to protect the people from themselves. (After all, they aren’t as smart as those in charge.) Most groups chose a small portion of law enforcement, but no one chose a large portion. (These people are good-natured and want for others more than themselves.) The education system was addressed as well. The dictator-like government said “no” to education. Reasoning went along the lines of: Why educate them? They will just over-throw those in charge. The Parliament-ish government said “yes” to education. Stipulation: You must pass a standardized test to be able to have a say in the government. The votes are weighed according to the test scores, high scores get more of a vote. These votes are used to elect those in charge (as long as those running pass the test and meet the standards) while those elected all have an equal vote. (This was the most interesting to me.) All but one of the groups addressed how to keep the people from over-throwing the government set up and how to keep corruption from taking over.
Now, what does this say about us? We first off, do not trust the government set up, even though it is fictitious. We are not a trusting people. Most of the groups assumed that the people in charge would not be of the same character of those being ruled. Everything done is to keep the few from having complete control of the many. It is apparent in American government as well. The “people” vote for those in charge, then blame the one in charge for when things go wrong. Is it not the people’s fault? The people chose who should lead. Unfortunately, in America the people’s vote for President doesn’t really count. It goes to popular vote. The electoral college ultimately decides who gets the seat in the White House. We vote for those people though. Should we not be more aware of who is in that seat? There isn’t as much stress put on the people for voting for the House of Representatives. Or the Senate. Not many people blame them for things going wrong. What happened to checks-and-balances? The President is only 1/3 of the power. He can be vetoed.
What does this say about people in general? We aren’t trusting. We assume that once someone has power, that they are more likely to become corrupt. The power will “go to their head”. We try so hard to get “good” people in positions of power, then we don’t trust them once they are there.