In our republic we as citizens vote representatives into office and then have very little control over what happens until the end of their term.
Accountability of our representatives mostly comes in the form of the threat of non-reelection at the end of a term.
I propose a citizen veto on any legislation passed by representatives. I also propose a citizen veto on specific representatives, allowing their removal at any point during their term.
Care would need to be given to the type of majority required to engage the veto, and if some sort of decentralization mechanism like an electoral college should be put into place for this. We would not want these vetos to be engaged trivially.
Here’s an example:
The president and Congress want to go to war with Russia. They do whatever is required under the Constitution to do this legally.
Most citizens, let’s say in this case 2/3 spread diversely across the nation, do not want this. The citizen veto is engaged and we evade war with Russia. Individual representatives may also be removed from office simultaneously with individual citizen vetos.
Let’s provide a constant and effective source of accountability to our elected representatives, and give the citizens real-time effective power when it is needed. It shouldn’t be needed often, our representatives should take the burden off of the shoulders of the people for a time. But if they break that trust they must return power to whom it was derived.