So Churchill was right ?...

This brief survey seems to leave us with only one option, summed up by W. Churchill in the "mother of parliaments", the House of Commons, on November 11, 1947: "Democracy is the worst form of government - except for all other forms, that have been tried from time to time."

It's significant that the best known definition of democracy should be based on a paradox, even a play on words. In fact, everybody makes fun of Churchill's phrase, and yet everybody accepts it, with one reservation: everybody thinks he has the solution to really get the best out of this lesser evil.

(It's also significant that the famous British statesman should have added cynicism to pragmatism in another phrase: "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." This second sentence is less often quoted: the scorn it displays for the actors - extras would be more appropriate - of democracy might discredit the first definition.)

Let's go back to the word itself.