contricusc
Contributor
You basically admit that democracy is just a giant fraud. There's simply no difference between your explanation with the supposed social contract between Putin and the Russians.
Simply put if Putin allows Russians to vote as long as it didn't present any challenge to him, then it will be allowed. Similarly "democracy" allowed some semblance of mass particiation as long as it didn't present any challenge to those gentlemen in the backdoor (elites, oligarchs, big money etc)
There is a huge difference that you refuse to see. In a democracy, the public has the ability to change the people in power. The head of state, the head of government, etc.
While the elites, oligarhs and big money are generally safe no matter the elections outcome, the country leaders can be changed whenever they become unpopular.
This difference is extremely important. Because of this, even the elites, oligarchs and big money have to tread carefully, because if some of them make big mistakes, they can end up in jail.
In a democracy nobody is completely immune from prosecution and from answering for his actions. While high ranking officials enjoy special protections and privileges, they are nowhere near as immune as dictators and their oligarchy.
In Russia the system is not a democracy because Putin and his ilk cannot be replaced from power by the people through voting. This is not allowed to happen. No matter how badly Putin runs the country, no matter how much suffering he inflicts on his people, they cannot get rid of him without an armed rebellion.
In a democratic country, a leader like Putin would have less than 10% support and would have been forced to call early elections and to resign, considering the damage he has done to Russia in the last two years.