One hears so much about the 'imperfect' state of democracy in the Indonesian archipelago, during this election period. Perhaps it is time to hear - from the view of a visiting 'European' - what's right about it.

The point of democracy is to provide for the rotation of leadership through clean elections; to achieve the least imperfect legislation for the greater good of all (without punishment for those who lose); and through the least imperfect institutions possible, the sustaining of civil order within which the human spirit can flourish.

Let us also consider what democracy probably does not involve or require. As one who has spent a long career studying developing countries, including their attempts to implant democratic institutions, I have read much nonsense about what the absolute standards are for successful democracy. These include various but usually high thresholds of economic and educational attainment.

It is true that the longest success stories of democracy worldwide are in Western industrial (and rich) societies. They were not always rich. The yeomen of Jeffersonian fame, in the 19th century, were poor and not very well educated farmers.

True, there was a seemingly limitless land frontier and that helped; small wonder the 'people of plenty' democratic thesis developed in more recent times.