the American system of governance.

Instead of supporting national industrial champions, the system rewards politicians who court politically powerful but outdated industrial and business models. Similarly, we can talk about pork barrel politics...because each state gets a vote even the state of Ohio gets fundings for fighting international terrorism which was initially intended for states like New York and New England. But hell, corruption is corruption whether the country is democratic or dictatorial.

There is also the weakness of all democratic systems: there are always far more stupid people than smart people (more clerical staff than software engineers). As long as people are doing similar jobs and get the similar pay, the society is relatively stable. But as the society starts to evolve and people are doing more specialized jobs, the stratefication will intensify. Low tech low paying industries hire more people and high tech high paying industries hire less people but with more money. I suppose initially the money wins out but overtime discontented mass with more votes would eventually prevail. We got a preview of the future already - the Trump phenomenon. 

The challenges for all democratic societies:

1) how to address disparities between different socio-economic groups?

2) how to address stupid mass problem: a stupid person gets one vote and a smart person gets one vote. There are far more stupid people.

3) how to remove system bias so politicians can not exploit the system for personal gain at the expense of the society at large?