Is Democracy a friend or a foe?

The introduction to the Cato Institute´s latest Policy Analysis - "The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies" - includes the following words:

Economic policy is the primary activity of the modern state. And if there is one thing that the public deeply misunderstands, it is economics. People do not grasp the "invisible hand" of the market, with its ability to harmonize private greed and the public interest. I call this anti-market bias. They underestimate the benefits of interaction with foreigners. I call this anti-foreign bias. They equate prosperity not with production, but with employment. I call this make-work bias. Finally, they are overly prone to think that economic conditions are bad and getting worse. I call this pessimistic bias.

I must say this is a good start, and I will have read the whole analysis soon.

But why this criticism of the holy grail, Democracy? Isn't there a "consensus" among all free people to hail democracy as the final solution to wars, suffering and poverty? Isn't democracy the solution to the problems of corruption and State oppression? Perhaps not.

I am a little surprised that the Cato Institute releases an open criticism of democracy. I am used to such criticism from the camp of Anti-Statists, for example the Mises Institute, especially Hans-Hermann Hoppe's Democracy: The God That Failed. Democracy is in many ways not any "better" or "worse" than any other statist tool to use the State to favor some at the expense of another. It is better than many tools because it includes the public to some extent to its own oppression, but worse in the way it makes people believe that someone else is doing all the paying and doing.

Cato's analysis will soon enough be read by me. Perhaps others who read this will do the same.