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Notes -
I think democracy is more about dodging responsibility than anything else.
Take a kingdom. King Arthur is king of the British. If he makes a decision, then it’s his decision and he and he alone is responsible for the outcomes. If he decides to invade France, he lives with the consequences positive or negative. And we know where to find him if he makes enough poor decisions. The buck stops in Camelot, and nowhere else. As such, and especially since he intends to pass down his kingdom to Arthur Jr., he has every reason to take these decisions seriously. And that would include dealing with corrupt officials.
Take a democracy. Everyone votes, and thus whatever decision comes from the people. Not the government they elect to make the decisions, the people. And thus the name of the game is to promise everything to get elected and then blame the people for the fallout. You voted for war with Iran, so if it’s going badly and wasting money and nobody can afford gas, that’s your fault, not the government. The government is only doing what you told it to. It’s not to blame that you’re stupid. And anyway, most of the people in the government will be retired before anything really bad comes from their incompetence.
In direct democracy this is true (that the majority is to blame for any mistake, so no one is really held responsible). But in representative democracy constituents will blame their representatives, even if they attempt every promised policy, for not implementing them correctly (or trying hard enough, etc.).
And in the US nearly everyone blames the president for everything, which is worse than a dictatorship, because even when he’s overruled, they assume he could just try harder and blame him for not doing so.
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