The thing is there is no while-paper with detailed descriptions of algorithms and no open-source reference implementation. To say it's better system than bitcoin is a joke!
We know democracy does not always work. In internet (especially in pseudonymous setting) it barely works at all.
Economic incentive (bitcoin), as we see, works just fine.
Another thing I hold against ripple: ripples (XRP, ripple coins) are issued at the start of the system and developers own them all. Is it democratic (or at least fair)?