Long distance communications in the Republic/Empire often seem "fuzzy." Possible in the past it was worse, requiring representatives to have autonomous decision making authority. As communications somewhat improved they simply maintained the practice.Their form of democracy always confused me. The senators were making important on the spot decisions without consulting their member worlds.
Being a Jedi required possessing a natural ability, they couldn't be recruited from the general population. Rising to the Jedi council could have been (at lest partially) dependant on how powerful you were with the force, a determination a "outsider" couldn't make.The Jedi was the defacto police force/military that recruited and elected their own members.
In terms of percentages, they spent less of their known history in civil war than America, Britain and quite a few other nations.The civil war and turning into an empire the way it did, even briefly, represented a humongous failure.
