"Why is democracy is such a popular system for establishing governments?" Here's an answer that I find satisfying but about which I think reasonable people cou

"Why is democracy is such a popular system for establishing governments?" Here's an answer that I find satisfying but about which I think reasonable people could disagree: In the US, at least, "democracy" works tremendously well for distributing the narrative that individual rational actors are the main and only political units. Your example of a family is quite useful in illustrating that there are limitations to that view, regardless of how useful or destructive that view may be. However, the utility of that view for maintaining the material situation of labor in the US is high. That is, individualism as an idea is a useful tool for people with money and power to convince large groups of people that the division of wealth in the country is entirely the product of aggregate individual choices rather than the product of a system that is designed for the rich to get richer. The truth of that proposition aside, I understand that utility to be the underlying historical motivation for people in the US to try and export their brand of democracy.