Well, since there have been no democracies other than village government by referrendum in ages, I'd say democracy is non-existent rather than a "farse."
In the USA (and the UK, and most first-world places), we have a Representative Republic with three branches. This checks-and-balances approach was to avoid tyranny. However, over the course of the last 100 years the executive branch of our government has seen exponential growth in its power, making it a juggernaut capable of steering the whole of the country.
Even given this, in order to switch to a pure tyranny/despotism/whatever, we would still need to see the legislature disband itself and/or vote all of its lawmaking power over to the executive, and ALSO see the court abdicate its jurisdiction (maybe -- but maybe not entirely necessary). Could this happen?
Well, it depends. If Senator Palpatine-Bush called for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Vallorum-Lewinsky, which was upheld, there would be a need for a new, stronger Chancellor. Palpatine-Bush is a good choice, and given the state of galactic emergency, he could likely get the Galactic Senate to abdicate some form of limited marshall law. If Palpatine-Bush then were able to free the Galactic Republic from the shackles of fear of some of its problems, notably terrorism brought on by the rebellion in several systems, which may only grow as a result of Palpatine-Bush's rise to power (He IS unpopular in other sectors, you know), then our citizens would have extreme faith in him. By then maybe he would be strong enough to disband the Galactic Senate. At which time, who knows what WoMDs he may release on the fringe systems, including those in the Outer Rim (such as Alderan, which has been rumored to have rebel ties). It is rumored his lackey Rumsfeld-Vader is already looking into possible targets for "extreme deterrence" with some new sort of MOAR (Mother of All Ray-guns) that is in the works. Though, news reports that the MOAR is actually being built IN SPACE itself, as it is much too large to fit on a planet. Rice-Dooku apparently has knowledge and plans for the device, but unlike Rumsfeld-Vader, she has been smart enough not to mention it.
Oh, well.
[ 05-14-2003, 01:10 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]