Crossposted from the blog The Hazy Path to which I contribute.

If you believe that democracy is guaranteed to triumph in the end, you might be in for a nasty surprise. You see, the path of democracy, once thought to be on an inexorable upward trajectory, has recently taken a turn for the worse. In 2017, the Economic Intelligence Unit downgraded the USA from a “full democracy” to a “flawed democracy” for the first time ever. This means a country with free elections, but weighed down by weak governance, corruption and low trust in the political system. And this trend isn’t confined to the US: it’s a global wave. In that same report, 72 countries had a lower democracy score than the previous year, while only 38 improved on their ratings. This process, known as democratic backsliding, has been steadily occurring around the world since 2006. And the only way to halt this process is to re-establish the case for a strong, truly representative democracy.

However, defenders of democracy often find themselves on unstable ground, when asked the question “why is democracy so great?” After all, there are plenty of non-democratic states which seem to be doing alright. There’s China with its centralized planning by a one-party regime, Singapore with its ever-present surveillance state, and the United Arab Emirates with its absolute monarchy and limited political freedoms. The share of global GDP produced by non-democracies is steadily rising, now exceeding one third. What’s more, governments across the world are seeking to emulate the “China model” of “stable, if repressive politics and high-speed economic growth”. So how can we prove that democracy is the natural endpoint of a country’s development, rather than merely one option among a vast array of possible governance models?

Well, to prove to the world that democracy is good, we must first understand why it’s good. In other words, what goal is democracy trying to achieve?

I believe that democracy is best used as a means to an end, rather than a sacred principle with intrinsic value. I will attempt to convince you that this view of democracy, the “instrumental” view, is more useful in building better government and ultimately a better society. But first, let’s define some terms.

The conflicting views

One theory of democracy’s purpose is to elect the “right” leaders. In this view, questions such as “Who is best equipped to lea...

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