Torture and Democracy

During class discussion today, I felt the need to post on the subject of the book that was discussed, Torture and Democracy. It seems to be a very pertinent subject that needs to be addressed not only in this class but as a nation. One of the books main points is that democracies of the world have been practicing 'clean' torture techniques, meaning techniques that leave no physical evidence of torture. This made me wonder what was the reason for this trend. Initially, I concluded that democracies, in contrast to authoritarian states, are far more humane in nature. However, even though this may be so, it seems that there may be a deeper reason for this trend.
Democracies by nature are supposed to be more or less transparent. The constituents make most of the decisions, therefore the way the government works and behaves is common knowledge. Once decisions are made by the elite of the government that exclude the citizens (such as approval of techniques of interrogation after 9/11) in democracies, there is a tendency to cover up what might be seen as morally wrong. 'Clean' techniques of torture is a method that masks the true behavior of our government. If there are no physical indications of torture, its difficult to grasp what the government has truly done.
Are clean torture techniques more humane than scarring torture techniques? Democracies around the world would quickly agree.