[seiferteric]

Maybe so, it's often said that democracy requires an educated populace. So maybe if you don't have that, you don't have a democracy.

[ams6110]

Also an unbiased and free news media, which is another thing that might need to be on your list.

[jknoepfler]

If by unbiased you mean in terms of the bias variance trade-off, and not in terms of "tends to align with beliefs of neither side of the political spectrum," then I'm inclined to agree.