Personally, I'd characterize the US as a plutocracy.
It's easy to show your country is doing well when you don't have free press?
No, Empire failed (or, rather, is failing), as empires do.
America has also pretty much failed to democracy, and part of that was trying to democracy and empire together, or maybe just neglecting issues with democracy because empire was more important. Democracy works a lot better where people are actually practicing something that produces democratic outcomes, and the US is very close to the worst of established “democracies” at doing that, and has steadfastly refused to even consider trying to do better.
> Is it time for a rekindling of the study of comparative politics?
“Rekindling” implies that it died out; it didn't, and remains an active field.
> It seems the Chinese have a viable solution to the problem of a largely uneducated and passive populace.
In what way?
Viable to whom? And who gets to decide? If the Chinese solution is so popular, why don't they hold an election?
There is no legitimate government without democracy, without the people deciding who should govern them and how.
Yes, absolutely, and I loathe him. Democracy isn't simply majority rule (which is mob rule, not really democracy). While I have mixed feelings about the Electoral College, it's the law made by the American citizens and their representatives; he is President.
Also, the U.S. is a republic, not a direct democracy. For very good reasons, elected representatives don't need day-to-day majority approval; that would get bad results.
The only exception is if the actual vote was altered in his favor, such as if someone hacked election machines or vote counts, or if voters were substantially denied their voting rights. I know of no evidence of hacking - and I'm someone who is very skeptical of election systems security. The latter there is some evidence of, but it's hard to define the line between difficulty and denial of rights, and the net impact on results of everyone of any party who had a problem voting.
An outsider was elected even though he was running against establishment candidates with huge money backing them.
I say democracy won.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-presidentia...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/us/politics/campaign-spen...
How so?
But let's be sane here : the situation in China is far, far worse than in the US. Just talk to a few recent immigrants, it's not like they're hard to find. A few of their stories should cure you of the notion that US health care, even for the poorest of the poor, is bad. But the numbers tell a different story.
But no worries, if a country has a oppressed population, it can rapidly end the use of plastic grocery bags, and therefore progressive get enamored with it.
And faking it ... well we accidentally got shown what US politicians meant by recycling, didn't we ?
The US is only 5% of the World's population. There are plenty of Developed countries doing much, much better than the US.
You're doing it wrong, but the rest of the world is ticking along.