You may find the book "Democracy, the God that failed" from Herman Hoppe interesting (or you may find him too weird). Although cronyism is one of the main culpr

You may find the book "Democracy, the God that failed" from Herman Hoppe interesting (or you may find him too weird). Although cronyism is one of the main culprit, he gives other reasons for the inferiority of the Democracy. Bare in mind that he is an anti-statist and anarcho-capitalist. His proposed practical solution is de-centralization of governments to as small as possible pieces. He has a related shorter variation here: https://mises.org/library/aristocracy-monarchy-democracy https://mises.org/library/aristocracy-monarchy-democracy