THE PROBLEM WITH DEMOCRACY AND SOME SUGGESTIONS

[A note to the reader. There is no suggestion that you, the reader should turn away from democracy, but rather that we adopt an open mind and attitude to other successful systems of governance.]

Flags at United Nations

Democracy is  Not Perfect

As Winston Churchill famously said in 1947, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all of those other forms which have been tried from time to time”. Clearly, this was not an unqualified endorsement. The Greek philosopher, Plato argued more than 2000 years ago that democracy meant ruling by the ignorant. Plato even suggested that democratic governance was conducive to mass ignorance, hysteria and tyranny. He believed that expertise was the critical attribute for a leader.

Writing in 1942, Joseph Schumpeter described democracy as a “Competition between teams of salesmen to get the voters to buy their product” and Cambridge University Professor, David Runciman suggests that contemporary democracy is “Tired, vindictive, self-deceiving and frequently ineffectual”.[i] 

In a recent discussion, Hélène Landemore (Professor of  Political Science at Yale University) described her approach to fixing Democracy saying, “The ideal of democracy is still very much alive but the implementation is failing over and over again”. Landemore suggested that electoral politics was the problem and the answer was to “get rid of elections altogether”! At the heart of her thinking is the suggestion of having “Citizens’ assemblies” made up of large groups of ordinary citizens, chosen at random to deliberate issues and to make recommendations. Surely, this would almost certainly lead to CHAOS![ii] 

Arguably, a better approach, involving citizens in appropriate circumstances would be the use of referendums. There have been 23 referendums in Australia since 1945 including one on the Establishment of a Republic and another on the granting of a voice to Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders. Neither was successful. Only four have succeeded, including the inclusion of the Aboriginal people in the national census.

The Belief that Democracy Promotes Peace is a Myth. 

Tufts University reports that the USA has undertaken more than 500 international military interventions since 1776 (250 years). The late President Jimmy Carter was not exaggerating when he said, “The US is the most warlike nation in the history of the world”.

In 1963, John F. Kennedy (having faced the real possibility of nuclear war) said, “Let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all cherish our children’s future and we are all mortal”.

However, the US targeted Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, and Syria thinking they could install democracies, friendly to the US. Instead, they brought killing and destruction, committing the US to endless wars. America also waged wars against communism in North Korea, killing one million Koreans and 400,000 Chinese, and in Vietnam, one million combatants and 365,000 civilians were killed.

Today, a multipolar world is rapidly emerging. Applying compromise, accommodation, and the recognition of alternative systems of government holds out the prospect of a safer, fairer and more peaceful world.

The Crumbling Pillars of Global Peace

For billions of people, the past 80 years has been a time of relative peace and rising prosperity. Peace has rested on two convictions, that wars of aggression are intolerable and empires must end. The first emerged from the carnage of two world wars which killed a hundred million people. The second came from centuries of colonial subjugation and the fight for self-determination. However, these two convictions are buckling. The great powers have engaged in wars of aggression. Russia has invaded Ukraine and the US has gone to war against Iran while nuclear powers are modernising and expanding. The standard explanation for this is said to be the collapse of the “rules-based international order” and Washington’s retreat from multilateral alliances and institutions.[iii]

Promoting Democracy

In December 2021, President Joe Biden welcomed more than 100 countries to his “Summit for Democracy”. However, even before Donald Trump was first elected President, the Economist Intelligence Unit had downgraded the US to the status of a “flawed democracy”. The truth is that effective governance is not the exclusive domain of democratic forms of government. There are scholars who argue that there is something functionally superior about meritocratic and even authoritarian regimes.

Biden referred to the STRUGGLE between “Democracy and Autocracy”. It need not be a struggle.  BRICS is not ideologically driven and its members include democracies, a monarchy, a theocracy as well as “dictatorships”. Nevertheless, BRICS is today the key platform for moving the world towards multipolarity. In addition, there are 10 nations making up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) where each has its own form of government. These include an Islamic Sultanate, a Monarchy, a One-party State, and a Socialist Communist State. Despite those differences, ASEAN is highly successful and its members pursue a culture of consultation and consensus leading to harmony, peace and prosperity.

China

Despite the West’s obsessive belief that China is a THREAT, China has no plan to overthrow democracy. In 2024 the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, referring to the USA and China said, “The two countries should be partners, not rivals; they should seek common ground instead of vicious competition. The earth is big enough for China and the United States to develop together and prosper independently”. During the May 2026 USA-China Summit in Beijing, Xi declared that “The great rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation and Making America Great Again can go hand-in-hand”.

According to John Keane (Professor of Politics at Sydney University), China is neither an autocracy nor a tyranny and the survival of its regime depends upon China retaining public support . Those who see China as a threat should recall that the US has more than 750 military bases and installations in more than 70 countries and spends more on its armed forces than the next 10 countries combined! China projects itself as meritocratic and its politicians rise on the basis of complex tests and experience which primarily value competence. China describes its system as “Democracy at the bottom, experimentation in the middle and meritocracy at the top”. Keane suggests that China is better described as a “One party dominated political system which nurtures experiments with a wide range of democratic tools”.[iv] 

Although China’s top leaders are selected on merit, at the village level committees are elected by the villagers themselves. Singapore is also a meritocracy where the People’s Action Party (PAP) has governed without interruption since 1959. Singapore’s leaders are selected, not elected. Lee Kuan Yew (the founder of modern day Singapore) graduated with a double-first class honours degree from Cambridge University. His son who followed him as Prime Minister graduated from the same university, scoring 12 more alphas than his nearest competitor. Singapore places a high premium on top-class education.

As we recently wrote on this site, “China doesn’t care if you are Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu or atheist. It doesn’t care if your government is democratic, theocratic or dictatorial. China doesn’t interfere with your elections, overthrow or stage coups against your government, kidnap your political leaders or sanction your country to the point of starving the population. It doesn’t operate hundreds of military bases around the world and does not invade other countries”.[v]

The Obsession with “Left Wing” and “Right Wing”

The concepts of “left-wing” and “right-wing” emerged during the French Revolution in 1789. It was based on the physical seating arrangements in the French National Assembly. Those to the rights of the presiding officer, primarily nobility and aristocrats were labelled “right-wing” and those seated to the left, primarily commoners were labelled “left-wing”. It is merely a system of classifying opposing political positions and is not about “Good v Evil”. A group could well take a left-wing position on one matter and a right wing position on another.

Today, Georgia Meloni leads the Brothers of Italy which is regarded as a right-wing coalition government with a fascist history although Meloni has largely normalised her government and strongly backs the European Union and NATO. The National Rally in France and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) are said to have undermined the European Union while aligning themselves with “autocratisation”. Two regional German elections are due in September where the Alternative for Germany currently leads the polls while France’s National Rally candidates are polling strongly France’s presidential election due in April 2027. Right-wing populists could soon acquire significant executive power in the EU’s two most influential countries.[vi]

Different Political Systems

One of the most common arguments in support of democracy is the ability of democracies to change their leaders by frequent elections. Although that may be true, one need only remember that  Australia has had seven prime ministers in the 21^st century alone, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison, and Anthony Albanese and the United Kingdom has had eight prime ministers this century, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz truss, Rishi Sunak, and Sir Keir Starmer (who appears to be struggling). Bear in mind, the switch in the US from Obama to Trump, then from Trump to Biden and back again to Trump! Australia and its closest allies can hardly be considered as shining examples of effective or stable democracies.

Merely because nations pursue different political systems, does not justify hostility by any one state against another. Sovereignty requires that every state has the right to determine its own system of government and no outside power has the right to impose its views on another state.

The Blending of Democracy and Meritocracy

Western obsession with ideological differences detracts from the real issue of providing “Good and effective government for the people”. Daniel Bell analyses the merits and flaws of both Electoral Democracies and Political Meritocracies and suggests that democracies can learn from meritocratic practices while autocracies can learn from democratic practices. Singapore and China are examples of political meritocracies which strongly favour high standards of education. Strangely, in the most important role of all namely, the leadership of a nation, most democracies do not require any qualifications at all![vii] 

John Keane suggests it is possible for Democracy and Meritocracy to be successfully blended. That would require that political leaders be elected by the people, but candidates should only be permitted to stand for election if they are suitably qualified and have the necessary expertise and experience. A diversity of education, talent and experience is needed. In that case, the risk of incompetent leadership would be minimised.

AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM – HEAR THE OTHER SIDE

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[i] How Democracy Ends by David Runciman, 2018

[ii] Foreign Policy, How to Fix Democracy, 18 March 26

[iii] Foreign Affairs, The crumbling pillars of Global Peace – 21 May 2026

[iv] When Trees Fall Monkeys Scatter by John Keane 2018

[v] South China Morning Post, China is the ultimate win-win country, 11 Feb 2026

[vi] The Conversation, The follower right is surging in France, Germany and parts of Europe 22 May 2026

[vii] The China Model by Daniel Bell, 2016