I feel bad for you, Brian, I really do. You made a couple of claims in ignorance that were demonstrably untrue, and your pride won't let you back up. The fact is, democratic moderation can and has worked, and if you don't believe me, ask any of the hundreds of members who aren't ignorant of the situation; we left a site with heavy moderation [dumpshock] to start our own, and it worked.
Would it work here? I don't know; that's certainly debatable. We were very fortunate to have a mature userbase who really understood the basic principles of the site, and a large group of people who'd been burned by heavy moderation. There is no doubt that the circumstances and the users were a major, major influence in the success of the site; the principles themselves are hardly universally-applicable. All I can do is share my own experiences with the issue at hand, and you can object all you want, but the evidence is all right there.
Sorry to have backed you into a corner; that wasn't my intention. Please, feel free to have the last word on the subject: