You may not be aware of the spectrum, but there are plenty of forms of government between democracy and authoritarian.
For instance, there can be an indirect democratic republic that is configured in a way to protect the rights of the minority against the desires of the majority.
In a democracy, any configuration can be changed given a qualified majority. If there's such configuration that it can't be changed by a qualified majority, then it's not a democracy.
Indirect democratic republic sounds painfully similar to people's democratic republics. Or infamous Putin's "controlled democracy" in Russia.
How would limited indirect democracy differ from autocracy such as in Russia or Belarus?
I'm not from US so naturally don't know every single bit about US...
My country is a constitutional republic too. But here any article in constitution can be changed with a constitutional majority. Yes, it's not a simple 50%+1 majority democracy, but it's still a democracy where the population can implement whatever changes they wish. Given that large enough part of population signs off on it.
It is impossible for correct authoritarian regimes to exist because people die. Even the most benevolent authoritarian regime cannot build the sorts of institutions required for their continued goodness after their current ruler dies.
This is one of the reasons why democracies work out more often: because leadership changes happen more often, they act as a forcing function to build better institutions. Of course democracies have real failure modes too.
Well, according to this thread, democracies are not universal because people will die too.
The question about democracy is wether democracy can ensure it's population does not go wrong way to vote in wrong people. Or does it need an oversight to make sure the society stays on track to be fit for a democracy? But if society needs an oversight, is it truly a democracy?
For instance, there can be an indirect democratic republic that is configured in a way to protect the rights of the minority against the desires of the majority.