As China’s death toll mounts and its economy slows, the country seems to be reaping the bitter fruits of President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy. Ill-informed and arbitrary decision-making looks to be, in the eyes of many in the West, the fatal weakness of China’s autocratic political system.

But a self-righteous contrast between democracy and autocracy cannot explain away the challenges of governance that confront many nations today. After all, terrible political decisions have brought Britain, the world’s oldest democracy, to the point where its hollowed-out state is struggling to offer even basic services to citizens.