Beyond the pork barrel and the sausage factory allegories of modern Western democracies

These are gigantic red herrings! This is an unfortunate byproduct of Western democracies! However, they usually and typically reflect peaceful political compromises between often legitimate opposing demands etc..

However, this should not distract attention from the far more important issues:

1. Government is not the solution! The best government ought to be limited and small. Prevent e.g. constant and expanding overregulation and so on!
2. Balanced budget requirement (except in war or extremely extraordinary situations)! Extravagant lifelong career politicians find always an excuse to spend more. To live within one's means applies to government too!
3. Constitutional caps on government debt! Servicing ever increasing government debt is a huge burden!
4. We urgently need constitutional term limits for all (lifelong career) politicians. The term limits for the U.S. President were not enough! The caste of lifelong career politicians in Western democracies has been a curse and a huge problem. The looming gerontocracy is another good reason to finally implement term limits. Like the great example of George Washington (like Cincinnatus before him), a citizen ought to become a temporary politician when the urge and necessity arises.