The reason societies with democratic governments are better places to live in than their alternatives isn't because of some goodness intrinsic to democracy, but because its hopeless inefficiency helps blunt the basic potential for evil.
Democratic governments are not hopelessly inefficient.
For pensions, the cost recognized by the employer entity is more than its contribution for employees who are covered by the Civil Service Retirement System and several minor systems (in a few of which the employer entity does not make any contributions toward the service cost).