Sir Lawrence Bragg when he was in charge of the Cavendish Laboratory formulated the 'Rule of six to the power of n', according to which each person can only give adequate real attention to the work and problems of six people reporting directly to him. This number six is not exact as it depends on how much other work the person has and how much attention his group members require, but certainly ten or twelve is the upper limit for direct leadership.
I will try to adapt the idea of Sir Lawrence Bragg as a possible means of solving the problem of how the individual can have a say (and a feeling he has a say) in government and also the problem of choosing wise leaders.
I suggest that it might be possible to make a democratic hierarchy in some such way as the following. People are divided regionally by place of home into groups of one thousand adults who vote every five years to choose ten of their number to represent them regionally. Each of these ten has the responsibility to see each of his one hundred people at least once a year in small groups and to discuss all kinds of political issues with them. These ten choose one of their number who represents them on the county scale (one million people). The thousand regional councillors on the County Council choose ten to do the regular work after listening to speeches by all those out of the one thousand who wish to stand for higher office. The National Parliament is formed from the tens of each of the counties.