Maybe that's a little far, no?
More seriously, there usually are no simple solutions to complex problems. And government is a very complex problem. So many people with so many opinions - and everyone involved afraid to say one wrong word or make one wrong decision. I don't think more fear helps there.
I mean - prison for corruption - yes! But prison for incompetence, no. Then you also have to jail the people who put the incompetent person there in the first place and those people and so on.
And how to decide which is which? Effectively there's not much difference
Could you do calmy your job then? Or would the anxiety made you even more prone to misstakes?
Worse, I have seen not enough people run for open council positions, so anybody willing to fill out the paperwork can ‘win’ without anyone in town voting.