If you look at even absolutist monarchs in Europe, they have constituents (lobbying groups) they have to listen to, the peasants and townfolks to appease, the nobility to seek support from, powerful breakaway independent Lords to manage, potential rival claimants inside and outside the kingdom.

Politics still happens outside of democracies.

The difference is just that our system of government, the "People" is given a formal primacy. Corruptions and short-term thinking happens with or without elections.