Short: When Democracies allow themselves to be coopted by special interests at the cost of its citizens, alternative forms of government begin to look appealing.
Medium: The ability to respond to the 'market of ideas' is democracy's greatest strength, but in the interest of doing that, democratic political parties often look at making alliances that allow them to game their particular brand of democracy at the expense of their citizens. All democracies do this, even the most functional ones, but the more this creep is allowed to continue unchecked, the more alternative 'command' style systems look. The older the root system, no matter how effective, the more vulnerable it is; particularly the 1789 Constitution.
Maximum Verbosity: I am as ardent a proponent of Democracy as you will ever find. My alignment is Pragmatic Good, and while I side recently with progressives, I will say or do what I think is reasonable for the Intelligent Greater Good (as compared to Libertarian Slippery Slope bullshit which Good can and does sometimes get mired in...) but I am writing this because of the number of people I see who look at China sometimes with Envy.
This post is to help you understand why. In my opinion, Oligarchy and alternatives to Liberal Democracy are being considered at the end of the day because of one thing: Security. Liberty without security is pointless. Yes, Franklin's saying (Those who would trade security for liberty will have neither) is always true, there are also exceptions. The primary exception is when democracy is coopted. It IS the greatest most reliable form of government long term because of the safe transition of power. There simply IS no form of government yet devised that allows for the transition of power between governments as efficiently. There are no exceptions.
But sometimes governments can provide the illusions that such is the case. In China and Russia, elaborate rituals were carried out to give the perception that there was stability. China in particular managed to go through the "rule of two" (i.e. the Sith) style where there was an heir apparent and an heir that had term limits. China has so many challenges coming up that the CCP readily agreed to set these rules aside for Xi, despite harsh lessons learned in the 1960's about putting too much power in the hands of one man. Russia also learned this lesson, but Putin managed to achieve his ends through corruption bribery and fear. But China is a much more interesting case because while Xi is already falling into the "absolute power" corruption trap, he is paying attention to things that the USA Democratic party is not.
Specifically, for example, China is paying attention to the genetic health of its citizens (ie security) at the expense of economic prestige and prosperity. It is also limiting technology abuse and Algorithm addiction imposed by the Dark Valley in an attempt to boost the bottom line. Both of these are good things and largely ignored by Democrats because the Confederation of Special Interest means pleasing everyone and no one as much as possible and part of that confederation includes the tech companies that pay a hefty bribe to democratic leaders on a regular basis. Regulatory Capture and the corruption of the 2nd Gilded Age are leading to a similar scenario in the United States to that of the Old Republic in Star Wars, with the American Empire but one or two elections away which will herald the creation of a Fascist State to make all others in history pale in comparison to the potential brazen abuse of decency for every person in the entire world.
The thing is, Xi isn't just paying lip service to standing up against the tech companies or Big Pharma. And it is more than just the generic 'lets snuff any potential threat to the party' behavior of the CCP either. Xi genuinely wants the youth of China to be free of technocratic enslavement desired by the Dark Valley. The problem of course, is that he is approaching these things with such ham fisted water melons on his feat ineptitude that he is creating serious long term resentment inside of China against the Party, particularly in Shanghai. But this trade off is seen as something to be considered due to the sheer ineptitude of the democrats in the United States. They look at the Do Nothing Democrats, who can't even prosecute someone who blatantly stole the elections or pass legislation to protect their children from being slaughtered by psychopaths with guns due to sacred worship of the slaver filibuster. So who can blame them for considering drinking the sweet sweet salt water of the CCP system?
The paramount duty of a government is security for itself and its citizens. If a government is not able to secure itself or enforce its will, it will be replaced whether internally by a coup or externally by conquest. If a government does not provide security for its citizens, then those citizens will undermine the government in every way they can, eventually causing the government to cease to exist. In a democratic form of government, this latter requirement is even more important because if the citizenry fails to buy in to the social compact, the government lacks power to enforce the very same desires of the citizens that it claims to represent. Democracy has proven its efficacy time and time again but the rotten termite infested wood that the society of the United States of America has become is the worst of the lot. Indeed, the corruption in the United States has become so terrible, its a threat to democracy all around the world as authoritarian sympathizers, which all regions and nationalities entertain, point to our rotting living corpse and say "See, lets make our government more like China and less like the United States because children are being murdered and their government cant do anything."
When a party exists only to facilitate fascism and undermine the democratic process itself, that party becomes an enemy of the state and should be made illegal; at the least placed on legal probation. The Republican Party clearly fits this description but the creaky Dead 1789 Constitution as well as the fanatical cults of the First and Second Amendments which allow abuse of the truth and Malloc style worship of Guns and their paraphernalia to threaten the lives of the actual majority. The youth of America, justifiably do not buy into a system that they didn't vote for, didn't ratify and that leaves them worse off than their parents for the first time in history.
Xi will inevitably become more and more corrupt and more and more ham fisted but this could take decades. In the meantime, if proponents of democracy fail to act for the long term good not just ineptly focusing on poorly executed strategies for the next election, more and more intelligent and pragmatic people in the United States will have medium term sympathies with parties that pretend to care about security like the Republicans or allow Centrist dems to roll back vital and needed reforms of criminal justice in local elections. The solution to this is more than just coopting the democratic party or 'voting blue no matter who' It will require visionary leadership and a willingness to reform the 1789 constitution. The 1789 document is so resistant to change it will not allow for sufficient reform. A whole new constitution that actually reflects the interests of the Actual Majority as well as the ability to adapt to the needs of that majority on a more fluid basis is vital for the United States as well as the sanctity of Democracy itself.
