The Remains of the Day is another interesting one - it starts off with romanticised fealty (butler to the aristocratic household) and then goes to show the whole thing as horribly corrupt and vile (they're Nazis).
The Shinsengumi were really, really not on the side of democracy, though - there was no democracy to defend. Both sides in that series of conflicts were feudal lords, and the only part that could be considered even vaguely democratic was when they were the police force in Kyoto and enforced the law relatively even-handedly.
I can't think of any Australian novels that fit into this trope either - there's all the WWI novels about the horrors of European imperialism played out with Australian/Turkish/NZ bodies, but it doesn't really interrogate why very much, or the character of the aristocracy in general or particular.
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The Shinsengumi were really, really not on the side of democracy, though - there was no democracy to defend. Both sides in that series of conflicts were feudal lords, and the only part that could be considered even vaguely democratic was when they were the police force in Kyoto and enforced the law relatively even-handedly.
I can't think of any Australian novels that fit into this trope either - there's all the WWI novels about the horrors of European imperialism played out with Australian/Turkish/NZ bodies, but it doesn't really interrogate why very much, or the character of the aristocracy in general or particular.