Plato, living in Athenian democracy at its height, criticised democracy as the worst form of government. In democracy, the political incentive structure rewards not those who are best able to govern, but those who are best at rabble-rousing to get elected. The entire purpose of political establishment is perverted into a popularity contest, undermining the very intent of the political exercise (or perhaps popularity circus is the intent of democracy).

The true distinction bewteen political governance is central autocracy vs regional authority. Centralized democracy is not much different from a centralized monarchy, except centralized democracy has sociopolitical horizon reaching only to the next election cycle, whereas monarchy has at least a 10-year planning perspective. Modern Western religion of democracy produces zealots who blindly believe in their meaningless and worthless ballots in choosing between two crimminals, as the solution to sociopolitical problems reaching back to the dawn of time.