Flaws in democratic system exposed by triumphalism

Democracy, as Britain's wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill is often quoted as saying, is the worst form of government except for all the others.

Even if he did not say precisely that, this is how his pithy aphorism is best remembered. It is a handy phrase for democrats to fall back on when democracy appears to be under pressure.

China's People's Daily reflected recently that Western-style democracy used to be recognized as a historical driver of social development, but it has reached its limits. In an analysis that will find an echo among many disgruntled voters in the West, it suggested democracy had been hijacked as a weapon for capitalists to boost their profits.