alt Hacker NewsH.L. Mencken is my preferred critic of democracy.
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."
or
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
Mencken's cynicism and mockery were arguably the type of thing Kierkegaard lamented, and perhaps in a sense were more a cause of social breakdown more than a consequence.