"Democracies are not very well equipped to stop a demagogue."

Actually, they are. The most robust democracies over the past century or so (the US, the UK, Canada, Australia) have yet to spawn a true demagogue as head of state or chief executive. Mussolini and Hitler, the two prime examples of successful demagogues, rose to power in polities with little history of effective democratic governance.

Of course, next week could prove me wrong.