But Churchill did not invent the phrase, which is presumably why he said "it has been said . . .""No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried from time to time."
I think more apt in the present situation of the leadership of democratic governance of major countries is this Chuchillian comment -
Tumrp, Johnson (although not yet elected to leadership of his nation) and a good few others have shown in ample measure their inability to live up to that standard. How they will stand up to the great crises of the type Churchill faced, I hate to think!Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.
I agree that Johnson was an effective leader of the city of London. Does being mayor of a city qualify one for leadership of a country? Perhaps sometimes. But I believe the problem in the United Kingdom, as it is in that other so-called beacon of democracy the United States, is the two-party system. The American founding fathers never envisioned the emergence of organised political parties. When they first appeared at the 1796 election it was, according the US History site,
A two-party system of national governance worked when both parties worked together for the good of their countries. That involved discussion, participation and working together, respect and a degree of compromise. In both countries those requirements have totally disappeared. Now the two-party system is a wreck.a stunning new phenomenon that shocked most of the older leaders of the Revolutionary Era. Even Madison, who was one of the earliest to see the value of political parties, believed that they would only serve as temporary coalitions for specific controversial elections.
It is ruled in large part by obscenely humungous amounts of cash from people and organisations who will never see an election. That alone ensures new and/or smaller parties cannot compete in any meaningful manner. Gray no longer exists. Everything is either very black or very white. It has so divided membership within parties, so divided governments, so divided the electorates that it has ceased to work for the benefit of the country as a whole. The first-past-the-post system in the UK and the electoral college in the USA ensure that the democratic ideal of governance by a majority vote of the people just does not exist. Hence the emergence of charismatic buffoons as leaders whose chronic lying, manipulation, belief that constant repetition of fake news makes it fact, inability to form a broad concensus and no proven ability to lead at other than a local level.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/19c.asp