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Do you think that democracy is good for everyone?
Is democracy good for everyone…? If it were the Greek version, I would say it is.

We asked all sorts of people -- authors, athletes, movie stars, politicians, thinkers, workers, dreamers -- ten tough questions
about democracy. We will publish many of the answers on this page, with
new ones every day. Be sure to tell us what you think in the forums.

Read today also:
10 Questions: Henry Porter - Novelist and political commentator, UK,
10 Questions: José Carlos Alvarez - Director of the National Museum of Theatre (Portugal)

"Mirror, mirror upon the wall, Who is the fairest of all?"
The mirror answered-
"Thou, O Queen, art the fairest of all,"
and the Queen was contented, because she knew the mirror could speak nothing but the truth.”
--The Brothers’ Grimm, Little Snow White

Vladimir Putin's recent announcement that he seeks to become Russia's Prime Minister after his Presidential term is over next March has resulted in a discursive cacophony about failure of Russian democracy. The London Times wrote that Russia is "moving toward some form of post-Soviet dictatorship." The Moscow Times said that democracy in Russia "is more a facade than a reality." The LA Times called Putin's move yet another sign of Russia's "pseudo-democracy."

According to John Keane, a professor of politics at the University of Westminster, Italy and Australia are turning back the clock on Democracy.

Keane tells ABC NEWS that voters are becoming disillusioned with democracy and politicians, and for the first time in a generation we are seeing an organized opposition to democracy.

Professor Keane believes that after 1945 democracy took on a new role, defined by three developments. First of all, democracy was implemented globally, amongst others in India. Secondly, America became the first global power that acted in the name of democracy. Thirdly, a hoard of institutions were set up to keep checks and balances on the people in power.

In recent years, the world has become disillusioned with the American crusade for democracy and critics have pointed to the short-commings of democracy in many parts of the world. Opposition to democracy still act in the name of the people. However, they use this disillusionment to revoke democratic institutions in their own countries.

Keane points to Italy and Australia as troubling examples of this trend. He argues that in these societies, the basic rules of democracy have changed. The political systems supports winning as many elections as possible. They discourage public debate and opposition and enforce the idea that parliament makes laws for people to follow.

Keane says that "This is not democracy, this is a bowdlerisation and degradation of democracy."

Since the beginning of October, www.whydemocracy.net has had over two milllion page impressions.

We are taking it as an indication that people from all over the world are participating in the Why Democracy? experience. We are expecting much bigger numbers as the broadcasts continue over the next few weeks. Enjoy the site and make yourself heard in our forums.  

BBC News, with the help of Professor Dennis Kavanagh of Liverpool University, and Professor John Keane, of Westminster University, has compiled an animated historical timeline detailing the history of democracy. From early forms in ancient Mesopotamia through Lech Walesa's election victory in Poland in 1990 until today, it's all there. Or most of it, anyway.

Are dictators ever good?
The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes notoriously put forward a form of government in which each citizen gives up his or her rights to a sovereign who is quite explicitly above the law. In return for this, the sovereign promises to guarantee and protect the rights of each individual. Hobbes feared democracy; he feared the importation into society of any idea that would lead its members to rebel against established authority. So to trade in a certain form of democratic liberty for the guarantee of safety and stability was a good trade for him.Whether or not dictators are ever good depends on what one expects from their government.

See today also:
10 Questions: Helena Ranta - Forensic dentist (Finland)
10 Questions: José Falcão
– Human Rights activist (Portugal)

In our efforts to pump up the President of the world elections, we have e-mailed all the people that are nominated and we have gotten letters back from Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela's representatives, saying thank you.

In the last two days we have also spend a bit of time e-mailing people around the world - fanclubs, hateclubs, messageboards and forums. Informing them about our election. Now all we have to do is sit back and wait for the vote.  

On Sunday the small West African Country Togo will hold parliamentary elections.

The election is supposed to mark the first free and fair election in
over forty years. Since 1993 all main donor countries have frozen aid
to the country because of bad governance, first under President
Gnassingbe Eyadema and later under his son Faure Gnassingbe, who came
to power in 2005.

International pressure forced Faure Gnassingbe to hold presidential
elections later that year. Although fraud was suspected Gnassingbe
officially won the elections with more than 60% of the vote.

According to Reuters Africa, the
Togolese people hope that Sunday's elections will mark a change to the
40 year rule of the Gnassingbe family and will put the country on a
path towards real democracy.

The much flaunted system of democracy has promised its recipients the chance to choose their leaders but has this promise always been fulfilled? The process of voting has been contentious and sometimes flawed to the degree that disillusioned citizens abstain from casting their vote. For democracy to advance the representative system it promotes, we have to look at the importance of the election process.

Today's movie, Egypt: We are watching you, probes the necessity of voting and whether casting your ballots actually makes a difference.

Why bother to vote?
It's of course a curious phenomena, because you feel your individual effects are very marginal. I always think voting is a really transforming experience, because it's one of the few occasions where you are doing something as a whole population. And you feel indeed like a elemental particle, just a little constituent, of the general population..

 We asked all sorts of people -- authors, athletes, movie stars, politicians, thinkers, workers, dreamers -- ten tough questions
about democracy. We will publish many of the answers on this page, with
new ones every day. Be sure to tell us what you think in the forums.

Read today also:

10 Questions: Claes Borgström - Ombudsman for Equality (Sweden)

10 Questions: Déborah Colker - Choreographer (Brazil)