They fail because people are lied to. Because they are used, and abused, and offered limited resources.

So they turn to someone who gives them hopeful words. Sadly those words are often lies.

Laying at the feet of "stupidity" is over-simplifying it because it makes the hurt a little less.

If all this suffering can just be laid at "ur dum" it hurts just a little less. But it's a terrible anesthetic that makes the next hurt that much more likely.

Haha, good one. Neither were democracies in the modern sense, in both cases voting right were so restrictive that large parts of the population did not matter.

Imagine a first past the post system but instead of states, you are grouped together by income.

And instead of voting simulaneously, the richest blocks votes first.

And now imagine, that 50% of the american populace gets one of 150 electors.

The vast majority of romans IN ROME never got to vote on any of the important positions.