What's the best form of democracy?

15 September was the UN International Day of Democracy. This annual event celebrates freedom, human rights and elections by universal suffrage. Those principles are among the shared values which bind our countries together.

I’m reminded of Sir Winston Churchill’s famous words during a parliamentary debate in 1947. “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise,” said Churchill. “Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” But if democracy is, by implication, the best form of government, what is the best form of democracy? Many Filipinos will ponder this question over coming months, in the build-up to next year’s elections, and with the prospect of a peace agreement and political settlement in Muslim Mindanao.

In Britain there is no single model of democracy. Despite being best known for our democratic traditions, it might be better to think of the UK as a great laboratory for democracy. The House of Commons is our primary institution. It has 650 Members of Parliament or “MPs” directly elected from constituencies across the UK. It is designed for adversarial debate, with the Government and Opposition sitting on benches directly facing each other. Government ministers need to be thick-skinned and sharp-witted as opponents seek to hold them to account. The weekly Prime Minister’s Questions time is popular TV viewing. It is not unusual for the Prime Minister to be asked about major global events one minute and public services in a small village the next.

A 19th century statesman, John Bright, described England as the “mother of Parliaments.” In fact, there is no English Parliament. The Westminster parliament in London is for the whole United Kingdom. But an important recent innovation is the establishment of a Scottish parliament, and of legislative assemblies in Northern Ireland and Wales. These bodies are democratically elected and have powers to pass legislation on day-to-day issues in their parts of the UK, including on education, health and criminal justice. This has proven a popular and successful exercise.

British democracy continues to evolve. We have devolved more powers to cities, and are considering changing the number of MPs and the constituencies that elect them. We are debating reform of the House of Lords and recently held a national referendum on whether to change the voting system for general elections. All of this means that Britain’s system of democracy is different to that in the Philippines, which is similar to but still not the same as the system in the United States. It is not easy to say that any one system is better than another as each has different strengths. However, I’m naturally biased in preferring the UK model as it works for us. 

Our experience shows that democracy is very dynamic. But whatever system people choose, most important is to value and use it. The best defender of democracy is high levels of public awareness, a strong and free press, well run elections and a large turnout. Ultimately, the system of voting matters less than the public freely exercising its right to vote.

(Stephen Lillie is the British Ambassador to the Philippines.)