The word ‘Democracy’ is a word according to the people’s choice of reference, Wikipedia, which refers to “a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives”.

Given that 2012 has brought, and has yet to bring, major government elections in democratic countries, TCE decided it would be appropriate to pass brief comment.

The November 2012 USA presidential elections in the self proclaimed “world’s greatest democracy” represent an interesting conundrum. In the past few elections the amount of money raised and spent campaigning appears to have a large influence on the outcome. In the election that first put Mr Obama in office, his team was campaigning across the USA by reports at times largely unopposed, as the local Republican campaign offices were shut due to lack of funds.

At the time of writing Mr Romney and Mr Obama are dipping into their 2012 campaign reserves at the rate of many tens of millions of dollars per month; and by some reports the Romney financial well is looking a little dry at present – Surely in the betting world there can only be one outcome?

So in the USA democracy has a price – in fact a price so high that only the wealthly realistically dictate which presidential candidate gets chosen for each party along with the policies they sell.

In the UK the population has to vote for a leader that is not directly elected by them but by their peers; not quite an equal say in decisions then either.

Although the price tag to become leader in the UK is not the same as in the USA, TCE wonders whether the meaning of the word democracy has been lost in translation to suit the elected politicians rather than the millions of people they are meant to represent.