&gt;Western democracies could be substantially better than they are, but they are still leagues beyond any other functioning system of government on the planet that i&#x27;m aware of.<p>This is a common misconception, but one that does not hold water. I am thoroughly unimpressed by European politics as compared to Singapore even though there are a few things in Singapore that are not as good as in Europe. Singapore has a democracy of sorts but is essentially a one party Corporatist system (most recently copied by China). On paper this is a nightmare for me but in reality it works quite well. In the end the systems importance is not as strong as that of the people who run it. I would much rather a smart benevolent dictator who makes good decisions than the joke of corrupt politics we have in Europe currently. We&#x27;re so good at self-congratulating ourselves that we haven&#x27;t realised we&#x27;ve lost our way.