Estimated reading time: 6 minutes, 9 seconds

Many people think that democracy is a single ‘thing’ – unless they are involved in some form of politics, or learn to appreciate the differences between governing bodies. There is no perfect democracy. But also, democracy is horribly complicated. I think that is something that people don’t appreciate. It isn’t as simple as letting the people vote – it involved decided on how they vote and how the votes are counted and what gets votes on and so many other things. In some countries, democracy is a way to ensure that the same powerful people stay in power. The other challenge is that stupid people get to vote – and their vote counts as just as equal as smart people – there is no difference. I don’t mean that in a mean way – just that you can know nothing about the candidates or the election issues and you still get a vote that is equal to someone who does understand the difference between propaganda and facts. It is an imperfect system – and it isn’t a single system either – every country has its own flavor of democracy … it kind of annoys me when people talk about it as if it were one thing … it is imperfect but perhaps it is the best we have?