The Indian and American situations demonstrate that the existence of an independent judiciary is actually a fundamental failure mode for democracy. Once a hostile party (e.g., sora-nAma-mahAduShTa) discovers that backdoor it is very hard for a democracy to survive in the true sense.
What about opposite cases ie absense of independent judiciary
We believe that would be a more stable state, though it would come with its own downside. We suspect that those can be handled more effectively if there is a transcendental code like dharma.