Yo dawg, the founding fathers were mostly the same rich ownership class that we see are today profiting off of political gridlocks. Our democracy is deeply imperfect thanks to the efforts of some of them, and I dont think democracy as a concept should be judged by success and failures in America.
I don't think OP needs to be qualified, it's just a thought experiment.
If someone could write a chapter in a book to help a new society properly understand and fight for democracy, it would be done by now.
Unironically Common Sense does attempt to explain this, and American founding fathers used this work as the template for our currently existing for of government.