Except they have a very tiered system, where elections only occur for positions at the lowest level, and the higher tier the position is the less accountable they are to the will of the people. There is no governance by the people there, I would argue there isn't in most countries that claim to be democratic, but its even more blatant in a system where the rulers aren't even representatives of the people, just representatives of a slightly lower tier of the only legal party.

[–] superniceperson@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

The lower tiers vote for the higher tiers, and anyone can join government.

As far as your concern, there's a reason the government in china actually works, vs the US that stagnates for decades.

Only actually qualified people have power. You prove yourself over years. Xi, for example, has a doctorate and decades of proven experience; and that was after winning his external elections.

to compare to to western democracy, you don't vote for prime minister, the people you voted for votes for prime minister. Just add a few layers with publicly auditable and contestable elections.

[–] dr_robotBones@reddthat.com 1 points 4 hours ago

I'm not saying it doesn't work, there are alot of things I think China does right, and I by no means think these representative republics of the west are anything more than veiled oligarchies, as China is a veiled technocracy. I just don't think its right to call any regime that isn't accountable to its population a democrarcy, I don't think its even right to call republics with infrequent or no referendums a democracy.