Message #3638

[AndrewF]

Ecu - Churchill was actually quite a serious historian and was rather an expert on political systems... The advantage of a democracy is that every sso often the electorate has the chance to kick the current bunch ot fwits into the long grass in exchange for a different lot of twits. The problem with all politics is that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely; so it is better to have a check on that power. The trouble is that, once any bunch of well-intentioned peole get the power to do something, that power corrupts what they initially set out to do to into maintaining themselves in power because they know they can't achieve all they want yet so they need longer to do it, so they do things which are designed to keep themselves in power rather than being designed for the good of the country. Having said that, any system where you have the possibility of chucking out the current bunch must be better than on in which you have no chance of deciding who is in charge, since the former, while it may in effect be a temporary dictatorship, it is just that - temporary: whereas the latter can be a long-term dictatorship; and while a beneficiaal dictator is arguably the best form of government they are as rare as rocking-horse ****.