I like this - as a fan of democracy.
Democracy costs, I think it’s OK that it takes a bit of time, more representatives, more votes is OK.
More civic engagement is a positive. Hearing the viewpoints of your neighbour is positive.
A really interesting dynamic, is that you would be creating a strong pipeline of leaders/representatives developing bottom up.
Lower population in of itself is a good thing.
It’s the change that is disruptive and will cause suffering in ways that are unique to the suffering caused by over population.
As population growth slows, the younger generation needs to support more elderly. Which means we need some combination of:
Working population being more productive. Population making do with less.
However you approach it, there will be segments of the population that are very unhappy.