It's really valuable how you have reviewed (historically) the pitfalls od democracy. I think there is an important pitfall that you touched on in mentioning the Nazis, that would be worth looking at further -- the pitfall of cheating. When there are political parties in a functioning democracy, there's the assumption that the parties are playing by the rules. And because of that, there is no response readily available for cheating. If one party cheats, and another party calls it out, is that a potentially objective assessment or a political power play? Consider pro football. A team cheats, and is presumably called out and penalized. This works if norms are observed. But we can imagine escalating levels of cheating. One team could over the course of the game surreptitiously murder members of the other team. How do we recategorize this from game strategy to crime? I don't think we have any kind of contingency plan, no procedures, protocols, standards or rubrics of any kind, no deterrence until long after the game, if ever.