Because that's how democracies work, right?
Look - no one in PowerPlay is the good guy. You can try to paint any power as the perfect solution to anything, but the simple fact is that every single power would rather deal with something other than democratically elected governments, and some are outright hostile to democratically elected governments (like Antal and Torval).
Well in theory democracy is a good idea just like communism is for different reasons. However in practice there are corrupt people who manipulate the power distribution so that "their vote" counts for the vote of many. In communism this has typically been some dictator like Stalin etc. In democracy it's some party who tells people how to vote. Of course the difference is that dictators hold near total power while in democracy there might be minorities who get to vote against the will of the major party but because they don't have the numbers, their votes simply don't count as far as the end result is concerned. Democracy is not perfect, not in real life and not in Elite (no gov type is).
The reason why Antal is hostile towards democratically elected governments is just that. Those governments have used their power to distribute the wealth of the system so that those who are in power get to have most of the resources and enjoy luxurious life (same is true for feudal and dictatorship of course but because the power is centralized, it's easier to change the way to lead). Then comes Antal and says that can't we share the technological advantagements and make everyone have a good quality of life? Of course those who have to give up their higher quality of life and political power feel enraged and fight back, thus violent protests. Note that Utopia is not favorable to expand to dictatorship any more than it's to democracy and actually unfavorable to feudal (they want to maintain their uneven wealth distribution).
So basically the Utopian hostile stance towards democracy and support for co-operative, communism, dictatorship and feudal comes from the fact that with those government types the administration is less likely to resist the Utopian rules (strict moral way of life and more sharing). Note that Utopian dictatorship and feudal government types are very different from "normal" corresponding gov types in that they fully support the Utopian way by applying the famous bans for example. The totalitarian power structure (which feudal and dictatorship already have in place) is simply used to ensure no-one tries to oppress another human being and if they do they become what you call political prisoners and are shipped to Polevnic. In practice this means they are given another change to embrace the Utopian ways and go back to the society if they abandon their oppressive ways but I do acknowledge there is "a dark side of Utopia" as well and some of the dissidents are simply impossible to integrate back to society and are simply executed. In democracies those power holding parties can easily inject their corrupt thinking into population thus increasing the amount of dissidents.
Torval uses the same control mechanics than Utopia but for different reason and this too is written in the game lore (PP descriptions). Torval says: "Hiring private security allows Senator Torval to keep distance from some of the darker methods of control used to keep systems in line." while Utopian description state "Only through vigilance can the followers of Utopia be kept safe from the menace of opposition. This requires extra purity on the part of the enforcers, but they are willing to make this sacrifice.". So the interesting part is that while both have covert control mechanics, the other (Torval) secretly gets rid of those who oppose the oppression and tries to hide it while Utopia openly gets rids of those who oppress and feel bad about it (willing to make this sacrifice). Not everyone can be saved and that's the shortcoming of Utopia and ultimately the point why I agree that there is no good guy in powerplay because there is no such thing as absolute good.
If you spot any conflicts with the ingame lore, please let me know. Utopians love their roleplay but at least I want it to be consistent with what's already officially in the game.
