The LA Review of Books has an
interesting essay by a Chinese graduate student at Oxford that looks at how Chinese liberals in the West often become disillusioned with democracy. It’s worth reading in full, but the essential idea is:
They became disillusioned with Western liberal democracy, because it did not live up to the promise of being a liberating force
Historian
T. Greer has a good response, which unpacks “what democracy is good for”. It’s a fairly pessimistic conclusion: Greer says democracy is (empirically) pretty good at ensuring freedom, not so good at providing equality and terrible at promoting “self-government” - but it’s worth it nevertheless, as it at least channels political conflict into non-violent competition.
It’s hard to dispute the idea that democracy isn’t living up to its billing (I highly recommend
Democracy for Realists, which Greer links to, or at least
this review, for a sobering dose of data on just how unresponsive the US political system is to the preferences of ordinary people). Nevertheless, if - as discussed in
previous Thoughts in Between - liberal democracy faces a crisis crisis, it feels as though we need a more vital vision than the mere avoidance of violence and the secret police…