Columns, Devil's Advocate, Ideas, Politics - Thursday, August 5, 2010 14:02 - 9 Comments

Devil’s Advocate: Is Democracy overrated?

Everyone knows -or at least pays lip-service to- Democracy as an exalted ideal. Is everyone wrong? Is this a concept we have been too lazy, or too blind, to fully examine? what is so special about a system that is aimed at creating a good society yet rarely delivers on that promise? In a controversial piece, the first of his 'Devil's Advocate' columns, Omer Ali examines the impact of democracy as well as its theoretical underpinnings. In the process, he draws on examples from politics and economics and takes aim at a few sacred truths.