Well I just don't think democracy is the best. It has a certain legitimacy that can't be denied, and it had the benefit that if things get really bad the people don't have to carry out a revolution but can vote the bastards out. The trouble is when things get that bad usually the country is no longer a democracy (i.e., Zimbabwe).

Drawing from Plato and Lenin (and ignoring Marx and Stalin and Mao and Ho), modern Communists in China and Vietnam put a strict five year limit on top office, and the party does select people at all levels. They choose from among people they have known and worked with for years.

Party membership more and more is being offered to college graduates rather than children of political hacks, and ideology is still a factor (you have to pass examinations showing that at least you know Communist theory) but is not really what it use to be.

Of course decisions made in closed meetings are subject to corruption, and you can be sure it takes a lot of money to rise to the top. A couple of years ago there was in Vietnam a little noticed (in the West) disciplining of the Prime Minister about this sort of thing, and he cleaned up his act. The Chinese are being more public about it and purging and seriously punishing the worst offenders. This gives me hope.

No government will ever be perfect, and the advantages of a certain form of government over another are given too much credit. Geography, history, culture, religion, luck are probably every bit as important as to who prospers and who doesn't.