What is Democracy? Is it worth suffering for?

The UK’s democracy is already compromised. We need to address that before we concern ourselves with the threat posed by ignoring a flawed plebiscite.

One of the candidates currently contesting for the leadership of the conservative party, and thereby Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, recently said that however much suffering might be caused should Britain exit the EU without a deal, failure to leave is not an option because of the damage that (he believes) will be caused to democracy.

Let us suppose, then, that democracy is under threat, either in the UK or elsewhere. How much suffering is it worth enduring in order to resist that threat? To answer that question we need, first, to understand what is meant by “democracy”. Abraham Lincoln famously defined it as “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” A phrase that seems easy enough to understand until you start to analyse it.

To begin with, we need definitions of “government” and of “the people”. There is a great deal of difference between the government of, say, a golf club or a nation. And a wide range of intermediate possibilities; parishes, cities, counties, states, provinces. Beyond the nation sate there are, in the modern world…