I am very appreciative of the responses to my post.
I suppose what I am clawing my way towards (a journey which I think will never end), is a model of democracy which will cope well in “normal” times, but have enough flexibility in it to deal with the unusual, the cataclysmic, the lifestyle threatening event - and then be able to return to the (almost) status quo ante bellum.

We might recognise that some forms of anarchism are arguably democratic, in holding that personal freedom is so important, that there is no role whatsoever for the state. Nozick is not quite anarchistic, in that he will allow govt a nightwatchman role. However, many would argue that this would allow a pre-eminent role for those who have a large share of resources, and can therefore position themselves favourably when any calamity strikes.

Mill would certainly have argued for an instrumental justification of democracy, in that it produces good results, good solutions, good laws, whereas non democratic states arguably result in the opposite. He seemed happy with the majority based representative democracy that many of us may think is the essence. He would probably have argued for an aristocratic element in the presence of a “selectorate” of participants with a base in science and technology. However, it could be argued that a government based on speeches and majorities is not a true democracy. Am I falteringly arguing for the kind of deliberative democracracy advocated by Fishkin? (Stanford Center for Deliberative Democracy). As I tentatively view it, deliberative democracy argues that purely representative democracy would not be able to cope well with such issues as pandemics. We need to “own” the decisions made by government. It is not good enough just to have these decisions validated by a majority. They must be our decisions. Perhaps if the pandemic, or other calamity is “our” pandemic, democracy will be ably to cope.

Mills version of democracy is suspicious of paternalistic intervention, but paternalistic intervention might have a part to play in unusual times (eg; “good samaritan laws).

I must stop here, because my Rousseau Detector has just set off an alarm.