In this minimalist conception, democracy is not a particularly abstruse or demanding form of government. Its main prerequisite is that a government be competent enough to protect people from anarchic violence so they don’t fall prey to, or even welcome, the first strongman who promises he can do the job. (Chaos is deadlier than tyranny.)

Steven Pinker, Enlightenment now: the case for reason, science, humanism, and progress, New York, 2018, p. 206