I would not put empaphis on some sort of ethnological mythos to why the USSR was like it was. It is a weak argument.

> Zuckerberg can bribe the shareholders to not care about their lack of control.

Monarchies had to please the aristocracy, etc.

I would say that "democracy" happens on party level not voter level. Party members are way more into the details than even the most engaged voters. You need to be at the meetings to know who is pushing what. It is all in subtle things. Most people I speak to have the most naive view on how parties work internally. Like it is a person. Goomba fallacy..

And party members more understand power hierarchy. All the drama is about that internally. Commité of whatever doing whatever having a say in whatever and delegate count of whatever county level org. to distict congress org. etc.

I think a big problem is that far too few people are engaged in politics nowadays. Active party members are aware of power structures and how they work.