Or that modern democracies are simply too inept to deal with them. I think we could design a democratic state that is far more effective than any that exists today.
Well, sure, we could design one - but could we design one that would survive itself?
For example, consider the problem of gerrymandering. When one political party takes control over another, they may look at their gerrymandered districts and cry out "Unfair! We need to fix this!" But how do you incentivize them so that they don't just redraw the boundaries in their favor this time?
IMO, we should abolish elections entirely and select legislators by lottery out of pools of people who pass qualification exams. Random selection has a lot of benefits. There have been a number of studies on its use in promoting workers in the private sector. Sortition has a long history of use in government, from ancient Greece, to the Irish constitutional convention of 2012.
Elections inherently favor those who desire power over other, demagogues, and narcissists. They also result in the creation of an insular political class, which often trends towards oligarchy.
