Questioning Liberal Democracy

Sholto Byrnes argues for adaptive political systems, liberal democracy should not be seen as a complete panacea:

"...Our faith in western liberal democracy, and our unshakeable belief that it is the unique possessor of a superior moral truth, have blinded us time and again to the realities in countries with other traditions...If the west doesn't try to understand the forces that swirl through societies which have not drawn deeply from the wells of Athenian democracy and the European Enlightenment, it will never be able to engage with them...Seeing different countries' value systems and cultural customs in the context of their own implicit social contracts enables us to relate to them more easily. Then you can accept, for instance, that in many countries there is sufficient attachment to tribal solidarity and hereditary rule as to make a different form of government appropriate. The western liberal sees no merit in such considerations because he has long ceased to give them any weight, but others do..."