Sunday, 28 February 2010

"Democracy is the worst form of government..."

Democracy is good. It might be difficult to define but we know that it is better than a dictatorship because it could be an evil dictator. It has to be better than anarchy, and as for communism well we know that it collapsed in Europe and there is no support for it here anyway. Winston Churchill thought that we would accept democracy with all its faults because it is better than anything else that has ever been tried.

There are problems with democracy and many changes have occured to improve it. Before the Reform Act of 1832 we had rotten boroughs and the best example of corruption comes from Old Sarum which had three voters. Manchester had no MPs prior to 1832. However things have improved. In 1918 women got the vote which was progress, even if they did have to wait another ten years for the voting age to be equal with men.

There are many other improvements that could be made to our democracy. In local politics if you have money you can still buy glossy leaflets and get them delivered. If we had a party list system you could buy your own party and get to the top of the list. Just because a voting system is proportional doesn't make it a better system. However the biggest threat to our democracy is related to buying seats under our present first-past-the-post system. It is quite frightening that Lord Ashcroft is doing just that. See

The paper reports that 5% of party income is down to Lord Ashcroft. I heard William Hague saying it was less than 2%. It doesn't really matter. Our democracy is weakened by a steeply sloping playing field. It sounds like a joke but what is the difference between a rotten borough and Lord Ashcroft's funding of marginal constituencies? I'll let you provide the answer.

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P.S. The actual quote from Winston Churchill is "No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." We need to keep working on those faults.


  1. It has to be better than anarchy

    Why? There's much to be said for "no government" along Proudhonian lines.

  2. Thanks for your comment anonymous (why is everyone anonymous?) I am not keen on anarchy and I don't think anarchy will win many votes. Thomas Carlyle hated "Anarchy as Death". Proudhon is famous for saying "La propriété, c'est le vol" but I am drinking a cup of tea at the moment and I don't want anyone to take it. For me "La propriété, ce n'est pas le vol. C'est la mienne". Property is not theft it's mine.