People protesting against both the concept and practice of authoritarian government has now become a worldwide phenomenon. It seems high time therefore to turn our attention to considering what have been, or are, examples of best practice democracy in action.

In The March of Folly, Pulitzer prize-winning historian Barbara Tuchman, reviewing crucial decisions in world history from the Trojan War down to the US involvement in Vietnam, stated as an historical phenomenon that ‘governments get most issues wrong’.