Winston Churchill was perhaps one of the greatest advocates of democracy in the recent past and a hero who epitomized the right to free will, to self determination and resistance to foreign aggression in Europe. Of course the rest of the world was ripe for the picking, but that was another story.

In one of his lesser known quips in parliamentary speeches, Churchill said: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” That statement was made in the House of Commons on 11 November 1947.

But it must also be taken into context. The remark was made after Churchill had lost the 1945 election and it was perhaps made with a taste of bitterness. But when the news of his defeat came out, he was in the bath and remarked: “They have a perfect right to kick me out. That is democracy”.

Another great philosopher of recent times who made the same argument, though in a different form was Aldous Huxley. In a follow up to his great dystopian novel A Brave New World, Huxley says that the governments of today (the 1960s) have simply masked a form of dictatorship through materialism and distractions that allow the people to believe they are happy, yet repressed.

Granted, Huxley is not everyone’s cup of tea and he had addled his brain with far too much LSD in his younger years, but in A Brave New World Revisited, he is remarkably clear and candid in his assessment of what was going on in the world. In fact, his assumptions of what life would be like at the turn of the millennium were almost spot on.

And this brings us to the crux of the argument. Democracy as we define it as a present concept works absolutely wonderfully when economies are up and there are sufficient distractions out there to keep the general public happy. These include holidays, new cars, ridiculously expensive make-up and sports events, the ability to purchase anything that is advertised on television etc, etc. Another instance where democracy flourishes in the event of aggression – the US and the UK rallied to their leaders in WWII and happily made sacrifices for their nation and their leaders.

But what about the here and now? What can a democratically elected government do if its people protest on the streets and demand action? What can be done when citizens are demanding a more transparent way of doing politics, yet all we can see is austerity across the board and in an across the board manner?

The protests against the next tranche of the Greek bailout are another indicator that democracy is not all well, as things stand. People are now protesting in the streets, but it has got to the point that some people do not even really know what they want. They feel aggrieved and feel as though they have no power, no say and no voice. The West believes in representative democracy, but in a world where things are not going too well at all, perhaps we might see a return of direct democracy, ironically Athens style – though B.C. The world is changing and changing fast. North Africa aspires for democracy, but perhaps they will come up with something different, a different form of government and machinery. Perhaps they will copy Europe, while Europe evolves into a Federal State regulated by Brussels… It’s anyone’s guess, but democracy is evolving. We will only realise this, once our old ways have disappeared.