@Justicar I would not consider India to be running things smoothly overall, but I cannot speak from personal experience. China is not perfect either, and you are correct that their total control is a major factor in them functioning as well as they are.
We could definitely have things working better if we actually enacted the principles of federalism, where the states themselves are the most prominent governing bodies, but that has long since been a thing of the past.
@Justicar And I could see that even that system would have issues, but at least the states being the bigger factor would allow for better governance than our overarching federal government. California, for example, would probably still suck, but at least other states would have their regions be more functional with the principle of subsidiarity instead of the top down system we have now.
I see balkanization being a very strong possibility in the US's future.
