Winston Churchill’s Quote on Democracy “Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy isthe worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried from time to time." -Winston Churchill, 1947. This quote represents the views of Winston Churchill, the former PrimeMinister of Great Britain, not only on democracy, but on government as a whole. By this quoteChurchill meant that democracy is not perfect, and no government created so far is. Every formof government no matter how successful it is has flaws. According to Webster’s Dictionary the definition of government is: 1 : "a government bythe people; esp : rule of the majority 2 : a government in which the supreme power is held by thepeople." Democracy cannot function without the people, especially if the people are ignorant, ill-informed, or only care about their own interests. Building an effective democracy takes time, thepeople must be educated to make effective and well-informed decisions. This is one reason whydemocracy is failing in Russia, and one of democracy’s flaws. Democracy is also a very slowprocess; the checks and balances that help make democracy effective also makes it inefficient. Before a law is passed it spends a great deal of time in the hands of officials in Congress, and evenin the hands of the president. “ Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. Itcan only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse out of thepublic treasury.”- Alexander Tyler. While this quote is not completely realistic, the idea behind itis very true. It is often said that democracy is just a tyranny of the majority. This can seem trueat times, because the thoughts and ideas of a minority are not always fairly represented. In fact...
