[CaptainDecisive]

I think you've got a fair point. But democracy is the least worst system of government that we know of. This idea has been around for a long time. I know the Churchill quote 'Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.' Apparently he said this in the 1940s but he attributed it to some earlier source.

Modern well established democracies have just had a longer time to refine the system to a slightly less shitty version of the democracy that come before them.

So you might be right, but I wonder if it's the journey that matters? Ie is it that countries have to go through the process in order to get to a better place? So you can't just drop a democracy system from another country in place somewhere, and hope that it works. That of course doesn't mean you shouldn't learn from the mistakes of others.

[credit_guy]

I dislike the term "democracy". The correct term that characterizes the western systems (such as the US) is "checks and balances". Having multiple check and balances is the best way to limit corruption, having general elections is a very poor proxy. Just see how many countries have general elections (and so can call themselves "democracies") and are ruled by a president for life.