I've lived outside of a cozy democracy. When its regime tried to go full authoritarian in 2013/2014, my countrymen got their Molotov cocktails ready.

"People get the government they deserve" is spot on. I'd also like to add that every single person pays the price for the actions of their government, regardless whether they choose to care who rules them or choose to disregard it (which is an equally conscious choice with equal consequences).

Even in a cozy democracy sometimes it can be frustrating when a candidate you didn’t vote for pushes for say a war on terror because of WMD that turn out not to exist.

Sometimes, even in a cozy democracy, both parties jointly support giving trillions in bailouts to pay bonuses to bankers and rating agencies who defrauded the public for years.

Even in a cozy democracy, I don’t think it is fair to hold the entire population accountable for the decisions of a tiny elite.

Marcos, Ceaușescu, and Mubarak are a few names that come to mind.

And, again, the Russians themselves proved this in 1991.

But russia is a democracy though. The problem with living in a "cozy democracy" is that you are brainwashed far worse than those living in "authoritarian" countries like russia, china, etc.

Have you ever considered that most russians, chinese, etc support their governments? Do you think when most russians hear NATO is expanding into ukraine, they're celebrating? Do you think everytime we antagonize china with taiwan, the chinese population celebrates it?

What's incredibly contemptuous is the idea that russians, chinese, iranians, etc don't have any agency. On average, I'd say russians, chinese, iranians, etc are better educated, smarter and politically aware than the brainwashed masses in a "cozy democracy" - whatever that means.