Winston Churchill once said, "Democracy was the worst form of government - except all the others". Democracy is rather a poor form of government but better than all the others we have tried - so far. As soon as you attack democracy then it is assumed you are favouring tyranny - which is nonsense.
The value of democracy is that there is a hope that next time your party might be in power. Clearly this does not hold where there is a sizeable minority which will never be in power - as in Northern Ireland. The best value is that the government fears to upset the people because it might not be re-elected. This is valuable but somewhat negative.
There are many powerful shortcomings in democracy. I have a long list. But I am inviting readers of this message to create their own list and send it to me. (edwdebono@msn.com, subject - Democracy)
I do have in mind a design for a much better form of government and when this is perfected I shall publish it.
Edward de Bono nmt
6th December 2003
