[Fidel Castro]

There's one primary reason a democratic way of electing manager (whether by players or staff) would never work: collusion.

Era would become corrupt/more corrupt (depending on how a player views it currently, I don't actually know) and much more similar to the real world corruption we see everyday. I could see it now, items/gralats/even I'm sure someone would be desperate enough to offer USD for votes a certain way. There would be no way to police that, and never an honest vote.