Simon Jenkins on the 'Crusader spirit' of western democracies

Simon Jenkins ponders the interpretation of democracy round the world. "Democracies are like two-year-olds : adorable when they belong to you, but you never see them as others do. ... Democracy is the new Christianity. It is the chosen faith of western civilisation, and carrying it abroad is the acceptable face of the Crusader spirit. In reinterpreting Tony Blair's interventionism, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, spoke recently of the west's 'mission' to promote democracy, even by economic and military warfare. ... We expect far too much of democracy, and of others who claim to espouse it. We treat it as a rigid set of rules from which no wavering is tolerable. The ballot is a sacred rite and any contamination is blasphemy. ... Democracy is an invitation to hypocrisy. Let us practise it ourselves and, if we must preach, preach by example."

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