Voting is supposed to be a proxy for choosing what government does on your behalf but it hasn't worked like that for a long time in the US or Europe. It doesn't matter who you vote for, most change is actually affected by unelected bureaucrats and regulators.

I also don't believe that only the projects that benefit the rich would be funded. All the rich people I know give significantly to projects that they will never feel the benefit of directly (other than the warm fuzzy feeling of contributing). While that's a bit "n of one", I think it's overly simplistic to paint the rich as completely self-serving. Projects would be funded based on their merit. Not based on the ability of some lobbyist to woo and shill their way to getting some provision included.

Transparency would go a long way and yes, I think extreme accountability would also help. But the fact is that politicians and "civil servants" are a parasitic class that doesn't produce anything for society. They exist only because of their ability to steal from our productivity. We could get rid of 99% of it and probably only very temporarily feel any pain or confusion.

I live about 15 minutes from Switzerland so I'm super familiar with the situation there. I think it works as well as it does because 1) it's small enough and well connected enough not to need to meddle in the rest of the world's affairs 2) culturally, they are quite homogeneous and 3) they're rich af, which makes lots of things easier. Agree though that they're in a way better place than the rest of the EU or USA.