Strong makes clear the intimacy of Soviet democracy as it was tied to the conception of the working class' involvement in society. In a socialist state, the disenfranchised voices became the previous owning class while the enfranchised spread to include those marginalized today such as migrant workers and the undereducated.

Capitalist democracy is defined by the same cutthroat competition as its economies are. Rivals ritually compete for power and influence as a means to an end. Making grand promises and the occasional acknowledgement of the constituents grievances only exist to serve the cynical desire to earn votes. The only opinions and concerns who matter are the capitalist class who own the economic base of society: food, shelter, entertainment and so much more that form the true politik of a nation.

But all elections presuppose an existing economic system, which voting is powerless to change. Voters in America cannot change Rockefeller’s method of operating oil companies for private profit. Similarly no Soviet election raises the issue of returning public properties to private hands: this was settled by the Revolution, and forms the foundation beneath the whole government.

Capitalist government serves to be a recruiting ground for working class traitors and the military where the capitalist class can find those willing to defend their dominance over society. Similarly, Soviet democracy exists to defend the dictatorship of the proletariat and to discover those who have the skills to organize and lead the working class in their respective areas.

All “toilers” over the age of eighteen may elect and be elected; the word is interpreted to include students, housewives, old people who have passed the age of work as well as those more formally known as workers…there are no disqualifications for transient residents, paupers, migratory workers, soldiers, sailors, such as exist in most countries; even non-citizens may vote if they work in a Soviet industry. There are no restrictions for sex, creed or color, nor even for illiteracy.

In the American South in the 20th century created a system of "literacy tests" for those who weren't "grandfathered in" for the right to vote. These literacy tests were intentionally made to fail Black citizens and to ensure that they couldn't vote (https://archive.ph/LH0KS). The Soviet Union in its infancy was far more inclusive than the United States today where voting is so heavily rigged to those who have the capital means to influence it.

Soviet democracy provides a real model of civil participation in society that communists should seek to understand and emulate. It's no coincidence that this is the form of democracy that took hold in nations such as the DPRK where Kim Jong Un is the most loved man in the country but the real day-to-day power is all held by workers councils and unions.