“We all know what to do, we just don’t know how to get re-elected after we have done it.”
— Jean-Claude Juncker, European politician
The British leader Winston Churchill is quoted as saying that democracy is the worst form of government except for any other. Most of us agree that democracy provides the best check against dictators or elite groups establishing a corrupt government for their own benefit.
If we’re honest, we also admit that no form of government is perfect. Popular opinion is important, as it should be, to the policies decided by democratically elected leaders. But how do we allow for the fact that popular opinion is sometimes wrong?
The United States’ second war with Iraq, a majority of Americans now agree, was a mistake. But at the time, the congressional resolution favoring the war passed with a solid majority in both houses. Americans and their representatives, caught up in anger after the attacks of 9/ll, allowed themselves to believe unsubstantiated arguments that Iraq posed a danger to the United States.
We have access to more information than ever before but also to unfounded myths and rumors. The Internet drowns us in information without necessarily supplying truth.
The success of democracy depends on an informed electorate willing to read beyond the next sound byte and on politicians willing to do the right thing even if it means losing the next election.
I search news reports for clues about a country’s first encounters with democracy. That country is Tunisia, where I once lived and worked. I scan the recent pictures. When I lived there, few women, and no younger ones, wore the head scarf. Most of them dressed like counterparts on the streets of Paris. Now the head scarf appears more often. Plenty of women do not wear it, but it still surprises me that some do.