It's interesting that you brought up democracy as problematic. I agree.

In The Poisonwood Bible, a Congolese schoolteacher explained the problem with the democratic system of voting that the Western world had imposed on his people.

He said that in his people's tradition, they discuss an issue until they can agree on a course of action. That way, everyone is happy -- or at least, no one is too upset. But in a majority-rule democracy, you could have 51% content and 49% bitter. This must lead to a poor long-term outcome. (I'm paraphrasing from memory here.)

After reading and considering this, I can't agree with the often-stated USA goal of "bringing freedom and democracy to the world." We have no moral high ground. We need to clean our own house first.