A large part of the problem is that America actually has
too much democracy for the tastes of a third of its population. Consider there are three separate branches of government purposely set in permanent opposition to one another. The U.S., of course, also has many levels of government, with voters passing judgment on all, from the president right down to the school board and dog catcher. Thus, there are constant demands for electoral participation and endless exposure to political debate, dispute, and conflict. This is indeed a vibrant democracy, but you have to understand it is simultaneously, for the same reasons, anathema to authoritarians.