I don't really think ordinary people who vote in general elections make much difference. They are basically randomly cherry picking things that the elites as a

I don't really think ordinary people who vote in general elections make much difference. They are basically randomly cherry picking things that the elites as a whole feed to them. Different elite interest groups compete with each other during election with whatever methods they can get away with. That said, it COULD make a difference if general citizens are knowledgeable and can stand against the system if needed -- which is definitely not the case for most developed countries -- again just my opinion, which could be wrong and biased. The Chinese model is: OK we are going to keep calling ourselves the communist party, but we are going to grab every elites, and THEN we will have "inter-party democracy". How do you recognize an elite? It's easy: either you have a lot of money, or you are accepted into the top universities, or you have influence among the locals. Ordinary people don't even bother with voting (it's still there) because they accept the fact that general election is just a facade, and the party is going to assimilate most of the elites into it anyway -- you can't do much if you are not in. But inter-party democracy DOES exist and is a thing, and goes to the top level election, when the central committee votes for the Politburo members. So basically, the core idea is: - Do you assimilate capable people into the elites? - Do you have relatively peaceful competitions among different elite interest groups? - If there are systemic issues do you correct it in a relatively peaceful way? Both US and China check for all of them. And that's it. Ordinary people like you and me are not part of the elites so we are just resources, human resources.