Democracy Is Still the Best System We Ever Invented
First of all, I have to apologize my dear Reader, since I promised this piece for Friday and I broke my promise. I’ll do my best in the future so that it won’t happen again.
While half of the world is looking at the United States and how Trump and his army of lawyers manage to keep him clean, it’s worth looking at other parts of the world.
But before we do that, I collected couple of famous and less well-known quotes which summerize why I’m a true fan of this system.
“Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time” – Winston Churcill
Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government.” – Carrie Chapman Catt, a key leader of the American women’s suffrage movement.
“Dictatorships are one-way streets. Democracy boasts two-way traffic.” – Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist and journalist.
"Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples." – Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Guatemalan human rights activist, feminist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
This one is not in favour of democracy, but also has a valid point:
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” – Winston Churchill
If you think that US (population: 341.7 million (2024)) is the biggest democracy in the world, look at the eastern part of the world. India with it’s population of 1.43 billion people (2024) , growing economy and it’s recent scientific achievements (lunar-exploration) is among the world leaders.
India just had it’s latest general elections. The reason it’s important to mention is because the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s agenda to divide the nations based on religious beliefs (“India is a hindu country”), practically failed. The Ram Temple, finished this year, replaced a 16-Century mosque torn down by Hindu mobs in 1992. According to Modi, a “a new era” started with this.
But the people of India thought differently. In Uttar Pradesh state, where the new Ram Temple is, Modi’s party, BJB, lost. Out of 80 seats the party won only 33 this year, while on the previous elections in 2019 it was 62, in 2014 it was 71.
The end result of the elections is that BJB doesn’t have the majority, compared to previous years, it has to create a coalition. That’s a slap on Mr. Modi’s face.
Although I don’t consider the European Union as world power, still, 27 countries has been voting since Thursday (6 June) and while I’m writing this article we are waiting for the results.
Approximately 360 million people is eligible to cast their votes across the continent. How many of them are going to practice their rights, that’s an interesting question.
Do have people something to lose? Something to fight for? Something to fight against? Because let’s be realistic: people mostly vote in one of the above situations.
And here comes Churchill’s quote into the picture. Because most of the European residents have very little idea about how EU works, what it does, more importantly what impact it has on our lives. That’s one of the reasons why the Brexit vote could have been successful in the United Kingdom.
In my home country, Hungary, the European Union elections are held together with the local elections. The participation rate is quite high, more than 56% of the eligible residents casted their votes, but still less than on the general elections in 2022 when it was above 70%.
I’m still satisfied with this number, since people practice their rights. In a young, 35 years old, democracy where people still learn how to play this “game”, it’s a progress.
We are still not there where we should be. Our PM, Mr. Viktor Orbán plays a very similar political game as Mr. Modi. He divides and rules. And people fall for that.
Anyway, if you are lucky enough to live in a democratic country, make sure you go and vote. Make sure you have your opinion heard.
Stay tuned, next Friday I’ll bring a completely different topic. Till then, let me know what you think about this.
With love,
Dori
Democracy has its fault, but I agree with you it's the best system we've come up with. Good article!