The common answer - still with a lot of truth to it - is “elections.”
Of course that doesn’t work when your country is run by effectively “one party with two heads” - because wealthy and corporate donors are funding favored candidates in both parties to get the same results.
The answer to that - in the US - is apparently “primaries.” There seems to be a popular uprising in both parties against the status quo candidates.
Beyond that there’s “an informed public.” Politifact is doing an excellent job of this: Comparing politicians’ claims with the real facts in a way that the traditional press has rarely done. comparing their promises made with promises kept. And they’re expanding into state politics, one state at a time. We’ve barely scratched the surface on what internet can do for citizen reporting and record keeping.
Romney’s “magic Etch-a-Sketch” didn’t work in 2012.
