No critique beyond this point
Any critique of democracy arouses suspicion, and even more so if this critique is made by those who wish for a world without capital and wage-labour, without classes, without a State.
Public opinion dislikes but understands those who despise democracy from a reactionary or elitist point of view. Someone who denies the common man's or woman's ability to organize and run his or her own life will logically oppose democracy. But someone who firmly believes in this ability, and yet regards democracy as unfit for human emancipation, is doomed to the dustbins of theory. At best, he is looked down upon as an idiot; at the worst, he gets the reputation of a warped mind destined to end up in the poor company of the arch-enemies of democracy: the fascists.
Indeed, if "the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves", it seems obvious that in order to emancipate themselves, the exploited must do away with power structures that enslave them, i.e. create their own organs of debating and decision-making. Exercising one's collective freedom, isn't that what democracy is all about... ? That assumption has the merit of simplicity: to change the world and live the best possible human life, what better way than to base this life on institutions that will provide the greatest number of people with the greatest freedom of speech and decision-taking ? Besides, whenever they fight, the dominated masses generally declare their will to establish the authentic democracy that's been lacking so far.
For all these reasons, the critique of democracy is a lost or forgotten battle.
