Flaws in democratic system exposed by triumphalism

Democracy, as Britain’s wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill is often quoted as saying, is the worst form of government except for all the others. Even if he did not say precisely that, this is how his pithy aphorism is best remembered. It is a handy phrase for democrats to fall back on when democracy appears to be under pressure.

China’s People’s Daily reflected recently that Western-style democracy used to be recognized as a historical driver of social development, but it has reached its limits. In an analysis that will find an echo among many disgruntled voters in the West, it suggested democracy had been hijacked as a weapon for capitalists to boost their profits.

The widespread sentiment within Western electorates that they have been ignored and left behind by self-perpetuating elites is seen as a key factor in recent election and referendum results in the United States and United Kingdom and may play a role in future outcomes in 2017.

On the face of it, the Brexit referendum vote in the UK and Donald Trump’s victory in the US should be regarded as a vindication of the democratic system — people were given a choice and they have made their decision.

Both results, however, have spurred soul-searching about what these outcomes mean for the future of a political system that is intended to safeguard the interests of all its citizens, not just those who picked the winner.

A worrying trend that has emerged is a “winner-takes-all” attitude among the victors.

Among some who voted for Brexit, on the ostensible grounds that it would allow the UK to regain its democratic rights from an undemocratic European Union, a discomfiting tendency has emerged to delegitimize the views of those who continue to warn