The past 100 years have been the only period in history where any significant portion of the world's population was able to participate in democracy. One hundred years ago the world still had several empires.
From that perspective, representative government could still be considered an experiment.
Winston Churchill said, "Democracy is the worst form of government - except for all the other ones."
I have a friend with the mellifluous name of Song who is a Ph.D. student and a Chinese national. He is 25 years old. He was living in Beijing during the 1988 Tienanmen Square incident. He was playing in the street when he thought he heard fireworks a few streets over, and his grandmother ran out and pulled him into the house. He has never voted for anything in his life - no local, regional, or national election, no school bonds, nothing. No one he knows from his country has ever voted for anything, ever.
It's easy to become cynical about our current political process. Considering the alternatives certainly helps with that.
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