What actually is democracy anyway? It seems as a nation we’re not entirely sure. Nigel Farage has argued that “the future of our democracy depends on who wins” the entirely unnecessary by-election he has triggered. In the coming days we are to see a new “unelected” prime minister enter Downing Street – lots of people think that undermines democracy, too.
A random selection of other phenomena branded “undemocratic” in UK politics in the past decade include: the first-past-the-post voting system; cuts to winter fuel payments; rising immigration numbers; the House of Lords; the courts; international treaties; four other people becoming PM without winning a general election; one party receiving millions in donations from overseas crypto billionaires; Britain leaving its closest trading bloc on a 52-48 split of the vote – and, conversely, Britain taking so long to do so.
When controversies arise, we reach for the accusation that something isn’t just bad or against the rules, but fundamentally at odds with democracy. The most self-righteous crusaders even hark back to democracy’s ancient Athenian roots, confidently translating the word (“demos”: people; “kratos”: rule) as though that settles the argument. Which is odd, because fifth-century Athenians would recognise very little that’s “democratic” in our political system.
This was one of the first things we were taught when I embarked upon a classics degree a decade and a half ago (along with the fact that the big wooden horse doesn’t actually appear in Homer’s Iliad, and only briefly in the Odyssey). But if you don’t trust me, may I direct your attention to a charming BBC podcast from 2019 entitled Could an Ancient Athenian Fix Britain?. It’s presented by a nice chap called Jon Harvey, whose alter ego you’re probably familiar with: he’s Count Binface, Farage’s main rival in the Clacton by-election. When Harvey hasn’t got a bin on his head, he is a comedian and fellow classicist – and he’s got a team of eminent academics and political experts on hand to explain what advice an Athenian might give us.
There are some lovely – if fantastical – ideas. Athenians weren’t fans of elections (far too easy for the rich and charismatic to sway the public), believing sortition a much fairer way to choose their leaders. Or, if parliament-by-lottery doesn’t sound appealing, how about continuous referenda? The Athenians, Harvey reminds us, would be horrified by the idea of only voting once every four years. They preferred a much more direct approach – voting on everything from whether or not to go to war to who should be responsible for picking up rubbish from the street.
My favourite ancient democratic mechanism is ostracism. Each year, Athenian citizens had the chance to vote to exile anyone they liked. (The word we now use to describe being shunned derives from the Greek ostraca, the pottery shards used to inscribe votes.) There was no charge or opportunity for defence; when the ostraca were tallied up the unlucky winner had ten days to leave Athens and could not return for a decade. This collective power was central to the very essence of democracy. Think of it as a safety valve to ensure ambitious individuals could always be held to account.
Just imagine if politicians today knew they could be judged on their decisions and face the consequences years after leaving office. Might it help nudge them towards longer-term thinking, or curb their impulses to spout dodgy facts and make impossible promises, like painting £350m on the side of a bus?
I digress. The point is, there’s no one single thing as “democracy” – it’s an idealised concept translated into messy sets of rules that differ across countries and throughout the ages. What matters is that the people governed by it understand and have faith in whatever version applies to them. But if Count Binface does defy the odds, and becomes the new MP for Clacton, I hope ostracism will be top of his agenda.
[Further reading: Nigel Farage doesn’t care about Clacton]
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This article appears in the 15 Jul 2026 issue of the New Statesman, After Keir Starmer
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