Despite what they told you at school, democracy is not a perfect system. It does not guarantee world peace, justice or even fairness in any academic sense that a philosopher would support. It just appears to be the best of all the bad choices that can be made when it comes to government.

Short of finding the mythical ideal of a philosopher-king or benevolent dictator, democracy is the best option we have come up with. Although Benjamin Franklin – one of the founding fathers of the US version – pointed out that it amounts to: “Two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.”