Martyn Hammersley writes the following:
"Asking ‘why democracy’ challenges the false idea that ‘democracy’ is simply ‘a good thing’."
For more, see: https://theloop.ecpr.eu/democracy-not-just-what-but-also-why/
This resonates with Michael Hanchard's statement, given some time after Hammersley's, that democracy is a problem for many. It is not a solution to their problems. See: https://theloop.ecpr.eu/democracy-as-a-problem/
From Hanchard's perspective, which I agree with, the reason is because "democracy" almost always means "liberal democracy" and electoralism. Both instruments came from a history of barons, wealthy merchants, and priests taking power from a monarch but NOT extending that power beyond themselves.
The barons, merchants, etc., formed parliaments for themselves, NOT "the people", and this helps to explain why suffrage movements arose in Europe & the colonies several empires brutally forced upon so very much of the world.
Liberal democracy & electoralism are meant to exclude the very people they are professed to empower. Both are fables spun by the powerful to placate, the bamboozle, the many. So when this "democracy" is imposed on those who do not "fit the picture of the ideal citizen" it is problem for them, not a solution.
That's my reading. It's your turn.
When, in your opinion, is democracy "a bad thing"?
https://theloop.ecpr.eu/democracy-as-a-problem/
When it is "formal", not "real" democracy. - And when in the critical situations it resembles more of authoritarianism than democracy. If we are the "idealists" of democracy, we have to think about "genuine" democracy in all cases.
Lets stick to the definition: Democracy means rule of the people. Therefore, any system that do not allow citizens to organize of their own will a national consultation (like a referendum) which result overules the decisions of the government , is not technically a democracy.
Impossible to manage in the modern world? Look at Switzerland