What is the most successful societal model?

The longest period of peace, of any country in history, was Edo, Japan. For nearly 260 year, Japan celebrated the world's second fastest growing economy (despite a "closed" border), the largest city in the world (1 million population in the city of Edo), a unique plumbing system that provided running water to all 1 million residents of Edo (the city), peace within and without, an explosion of professions (thanks to the Artisan nature of society), and incredibly rapid upward mobility. Not only that but nearly half of Edo were armed Samurai, and yet the era was one of zen the Samurai spent their time with Oiran (prostitutes), in tea houses hence, the further expansion and appeal of the famed "tea ceremony," that would eventually create the global obsession with matcha.
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Switzerland is yet another example of the power of self-governing, local-centric, societies. Like the Edo merchants and Oiran, the Swiss people run their own lives, without much government intervention. One could describe this model as a participatory democracy that mirrors much of what Edo had accomplished in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s.