Dictatorship - whether Royal or democratic - is bad and deplorable. I wont argue against that. All I can hope is the elections will clear the air on that.

As for the Panchayat being more functional, it's debatable. We were a tinderbox waiting to light up under that "peace" that some might have seen on the surface. Continuous economic decline, exploding population, surge in the number of 18-35 year old males, corruption and huge disparities between Kathmandu and the rest of the country, a result of that "peace", created conditions ripe for revolution. We are getting into hypothetical territory, but I am willing to bet had the Panchayat stayed on things could have been far worse because they were in denial of the problem in the first place. Functional only superficially - to the point where the system's indifference contributed to creating problems that are likely to take decades to resolve.

That's not to say the parties dont share their part of the blame. They sure do and they should be held accountable for it by the people. But to argue the Panchayat was this epitome of a peaceful, functional system is a bit of a stretch IMO.