Most western countries pay lip service to Democracy but virtually all have a different way of implementing that democracy. For instance USA democracy is a far cry from UK democracy which in turn is a long way from EU “democracy”.

New Zealand “democracy” at the moment seems to resemble the EU form; I use ” ” because they are, in fact, elected dictatorships rather than genuine democratic regimes.

Reading around the “blogosphere” there seems to be a division on whether MPs should represent the people (my preference) or use their (based on evidence, non-existent) wisdom when governing the country.

When democracy first started the men of the village were rounded up and made to vote on the issues that were discussed.

I’m for a return to that system – metaphorically – although a return to binding referenda on non-urgent issues accompanied by an edict that only national security issues should be “eyes only” would be a good start.