The political processes of Western democracy development have been accompanied by a tradition of criticizing democracy. Democracy had been regarded as a bad thing for a long time. Joseph A. Schumpeter’s substitution of electoral politics for popular sovereignty has realized the creative transformation of democracy and made competitive elections the essence of democracy. This alienated democracy does not only lose the core of democracy, but also becomes the source of political decay for the majority of the countries riding the third wave of democratic transition. The “failure” of Western democracy has its innate logic, i.e., the contradiction between democracy and the rule of law, the combination of political division among electorate and centrifugal democratic institutions, and the tension between multi-culturalism and nation-state. Therefore, to strengthen the construction of China’s socialist democratic politics, it is necessary to go beyond the simplistic understanding of democracy and realize a democracy with wide participation, to enhance the construction of the rule of law and promote the healthy development of democratic politics, and to improve the performance of democracy on the basis of elevating the state governance capacity.