Socialism or Democracy?

Socialism is an economical system. Democracy a political ideology. You can't really compare them. They can coexist in a society.

We don't actually. The ones pulling the strings are not known to the public. Or they'd be killed in minutes. All we can do is guess from which countries they operate.

Socialism and democracy could "work", i.e. the citizens of whatever state that both will be practiced in will benefit from their best case scenarios, if and only if there is equal access and opportunity for all in terms of information, education, and awareness to make informed decisions. If this could not be provided (by the state/market/who knows?), then I don't think it's possible. Imagine a democracy where personality politics is the basis for electing the leader (our country, the Philippines, is a case in point). Democracy will not benefit the citizens here at all, since no one cares about the platforms or party stands of the politicians as well as their backers. Anyone could basically win so long as they can capture a majority/plurality of the voters, regardless of competency. Add to this the lack of access to information that will be readily available to people in very remote rural areas. Very few, if there are, chances of making a decision that is not based on emotions there. Now socialism. I have no experience on this whatsoever in my country except when I travel abroad and get to compare, so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here. Wouldn't a socialist country -- worst case scenario, though -- eventually become a breeding ground for society freeloaders? I know there are countries where this "seemed" to work, but that is also in countries where education quality is super high. So, I think education and information access and awareness still go hand in hand here.