The people practised democracy where they could.
Only if we practised democracy could the country develop".
We practised democracy, we voted, there's education, freedom of speech, of expression, and Afghanistan's flag is flying all over the world".
A first-past-the-post, winner-takes-all voting system may work in practised democracies such as Britain, but could be disastrous in Uganda, as it would simply allow one or two big tribes to dominate the rest.
But for now Belarus's president has got away once again with ignoring the rules of democracy as practised elsewhere.
Although ballot-box democracy is practised only at a local level in China, the leaders of the one-party state have shown themselves to be responsive at times to online opinion.
Social democracy, as practised in Brazil, Chile and Mr Galeano's own Uruguay, has offered more to the Latin American masses than the Castros' bankrupt police state.But the contention of "Open Veins" that Latin Americans are poor because someone multinationals, local capitalists or the United States is stealing their wealth retains a profound resonance in the region.
The unprincipled U-turns, the grubby symbiosis, and what Ali calls "Tweedledum-Tweedledee" party politics have alienated the electorate, he argues, and made us feel democracy as practised in Westminster is a peculiarly sick version of what it was supposed to be: rule by and for the people.
It is also the only western democracy to have practised slavery in the industrial era.
In a sport in which most players' brains soon take residence in their boots, he talked of Van Gogh and Cuban history, practised medicine and worried about democracy.
In neighbouring countries and across Africa such fine behaviour is still unusual.In this section It's progress, even if it's patchy Not as bad as they say On the mend Let's take it slowly Yet another trick up his sleeve A lively new leader ReprintsBut democracy, in one shape or another, is a lot more widely practised than it was.
