Thanks. That's pretty insightful.

I want to point out that the subtleties of modern western democracies are probably not that relevant to any democracy that would be formed in Afghanistan. Choices would probably be painted with broad swaths, not idiosyncracies. As such, the level of commitment to learning about candidates is probably reduced significantly. Hell, people in the US vote for parties, not people, if they even put that much thought into it.

I also want to point out that a democratic regime has no more ability to be corrupt than any other regime. Of course, one that is based on an extreme ideology probably has the least likelihood of being corrupt.

But these arguments are still probably irrelevant to the average Afghani. Maybe they should look into anarcho-syndicalism or, hell, feudalism. Something more transparent that takes less effort to comprehend and deal with. At least until they didn't have to worry about where their next meal was coming from.