AL,
since I did not compare Bush to the Gestapo, but compared certain new legal (or should I say: non-legal?
) procedures to the Gestapo, your question is pointless anyway and just destracts attention by trying to change interpretation of what I said.
August,
the problem is the same in monarchy as well as in democracy: how to prevent corruption of those in power. If you have a good, fair, reasonable, educated king/queen, it could be a blessing for the country, eventually. If he is a selfish egoist, or incompetent, he is a tyrant. Candidates to become kings usually receove special training and education far above the average in today's representative monarchies. Whereas in a democracy, comoetence is no criterion. If some fool has just the ability to moilze the masses in a speech, or is backed up by financial support so that he can "overkill" his rivals for an election by "out-shine him in the medias, eventually (and today: very often) the populistic opportunist with bad character and zero competence will win.
"Star Wars i-iii" showed the kingdom of naboo - where kings/queens get elected for some time by the people.
"Dune" by Frank Herbert describes all known univese ruled via feudal structures.
"Hellstrom's Hive" by Frank Herbert describe a total collective like in an insect state, where the interests of the the many totally dominate the fate of the one, and consumes any individuality.
Which could be understood as the most absolute consequence of "democracy". It is surprising how democracy and totalitarianism can give an impression of beeing so very close in nature.
I believe that democarcy works best in smaller communities. For greater communities (don't aks me for the deciding criterion), I tend to believe that a democarcy will work so bad and tend so strictly to become a victim of oligarchies abusing it, that I slightly prefer to put my money on feudal structures. But whatever you prefer, the basic problem remains: the unreasonable and seflish basic attitude of man. Democracy functions by the basic assumption of man being reasonable, altruistic, and concerned about the well-being of the community, not just his own. Communism bases on much the same assumption. All three are highly vulnerable for failing for the very same reasons.
Makes you wonder if we really have changed at all over the last centuries and millenia. "There is nothing new under the sun - except what just has been forgotten." (some Spanish wise man, Santayana, maybe).