Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide. - John Adams.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.- Benjamin Franklin
And since above I was not sure whether the quote was by Franklin or Adams, it was Franklin for sure:
When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic
Regarding a draft for how to replace democracy, not only the aspect of size of community and a mixture of local autarky and supra-regional feudalism is important, but also not to always repeat the same mistakes from the past - but to learn the lessons, finally. I forgot to refer to Jared Diamond again, whose observations on why societies rationally and sometimes even democratically decide to vote for their own collapse. These lessons must finally be learned, to avoid making these mistakes again. I once had a thread launched where I tried to summarise Diamonds conclusions on some things,
Link: How to fail in survival for very rational reasons. . Again, the aspect of community sizes show up there. Democratic voteing prinmciples can only play a positive role in the smallest of community sizes: communites that are only so big that every member can oversee what all others are doiujng and how it affects him, and how his own deeds will and does affect all the others. That sets limits to population sizes in a self-governing community. It also demands that their is strict population control, a dynamically fluctuating but all in all stable balance between young and old and a maximum limit that is not allowed to get overstepped. Control of popultion size is not only wantred from an ecological perspective - politically, it also is a must. The chinese understood that correctly - they just concluded wrong consequences from it. I admit I currently have no idea on how to improve their apporoach (which they now give up). When you control population sizes, you need to find a workaround for the aging problem. Or you need to get rid of the exceeding population when the upper community limit has been reached. In thre past, wars and epidemics worked as a natural counterbalance. But these are options that forbid themselves to become accepted tools of population control, obviously.
If somebody has ideas, make it known.Chances are you get one peace Nobel price per year for the rest of your life.