When US dysfunction includes things like regime change and election tampering, it can definitely be used as an excuse.

Yes, some countries have independently produced pro-Western democracies, but if they have enough value and start electing anti-Western leaders their democracy will become a target of Western attack. See the ~2002 US backed coup attempt against Hugo Chavez, or the recent Morales elections.

I've never heard of those, but I've heard of the countries whose dictators we propped up and helped (often by literally sending lists of names) to exterminate their secular opposition. Then when they have a revolution because the degree of crushing desperation of the populace exceeded the strength of internal policing, the only leaders left are religious, thereby turning the country into a theocracy.

Can you list some them? Bonus points if outside Western Europe.

Taiwan, South Korea, Japan.

Even if true, that’s irrelevant to the question asked?

I disagree. You cannot say a country is democratic "despite" thirty thousand US soldiers camping inside with little to no accountability.

Tunisia.

Not anymore unfortunately [0].

[0] https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/tunisians-protest-again...

See that's the thing, it's not that simple. The ruling party which controlled the parliament for a few years is corrupt. The president, who was democratically elected by the majority of the people, used the constitution to suspend said parliament, with the support of the people. It's definitely an unorthodox move but it relates to one of democracy's limitations; what could be done when an elected party represents its own interests and not the people's?

Lots of factors could be at play indeed. I'm certainly not an expert, but if I read correctly, the man has disbanded parliament and ruled by decree since two months, publicly announcing his disregard for the constitution. To me, that does not count as democratic anymore.

The former yugoslavia