[throw0101a]

> It may very well end up that the Information Age has tipped the scales and our large meandering decentralized democracies are no longer the superior model they were back when it took 4 weeks to get a letter from New York City to Washington DC.

There are more and less (de)centralized democracies. The US (and others) are formed from federated regional governments:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism

But there are unitary states (France, Spain) as well:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitary_state

As for democracies: one problem with non-democracies is negative feedback can be difficult. If things are headed in a bad direction, it can be hard to get that message through to those in charge if they lean autocratic and become isolated from reality. Folks are afraid to bear bad news because messenger get shot (proverbially or literally).