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Democracy is not for everyone

When Winston Churchill described democracy as the least worst form of government, it was hardly a glowing endorsement. And after the bloodshed which has sabotaged nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan, the optimism that the end of the Cold War would herald the triumph of the Western model of liberal democracy has emphatically subsided. Some societies, the autocrats argue, simply need strong rule to ensure political stability and economic growth. So in China, the Middle East, and a third of all countries around the world, there are still billions of people who don’t yet have the fundamental right of controlling their own lives.

Should the West, where the ballot box so often leads to mob rule, corruption and inequality, try to impose democracy?

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