USSR was destroyed by stupid government. I'm not sure about western countries, but democracy might have some tools to prevent stupid presidents to do heavy damage (I'm not sure how exactly, but whatever). So the question is, whether Chinese society was able to build a tools to prevent stupid government to ruin everything. After all, Chinese was terrible poor country not so long ago and for many years. How are they going not to repeat the same mistakes?
Western world believes in democracy (at least some people do), but it's not generally accepted truth. I think that democracy is stupid, though I don't have anything better to offer.
> I'm not sure about western countries, but democracy might have some tools to prevent stupid presidents to do heavy damage
Democracy also self-contains the tools to undo itself, as long as someone can convince the majority that it's not only a good idea, but prudent to do so. That is why the transition from democracy to fascism and outright dictatorship can happen quickly.
I think Culture-style benign dictatorship is a better system than democracy, but hadn't been practised yet. As currently practised, democracy tends towards bureaucracy and short-term thinking (projects small enough to fit in a term).
> As currently practised, democracy tends towards bureaucracy and short-term thinking (projects small enough to fit in a term).
Not to mention that it can devolve into something that's more of a democracy in name only.
Take the upcoming US elections where the choices are, on one hand, a blowhard who wants to build a massive wall to keep out Mexican immigrants, and on the other a corrupt-to-the-core corporate puppet.
This isn't much of a real democracy when parties become so big that more competent people have no chance of running for office without the support of said parties.
That's just the US's voting system in action. Unfortunately, changing a voting system is almost impossible Because the people with the power to change it are the ones that benefit from the status quo. Britain came really close recently with the Liberals though, but I think that was an exceptional situation and the incumbents managed to convince the populace that a more proportional voting system was a waste of money.
