In his early writings, Samuel Huntington distinguished between “form of government” (democracy, dictatorship, oligarchy, etc.) and “degree of government.” The degree of government is, in his view, more important. Degree of government expresses the extent to which the government has mass popular support. In other words, whether the government is supported by the majority of the population (which usually means that the majority feels positively about the government’s actions) is more important than whether there is an election.
The possibility that democracy consists of government by foreign sponsors through non-profits is not considered at all by Huntington here. He would probably describe the current Czech Republic as the worst form of dictatorship.
According to Huntington’s breakdown, China is significantly better off than the US in terms of governance, not to mention the Czech Republic.