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I venture to suggest that if ever it comes to awarding a Nobel prize for democratic achievement in recent decades, this prize should go neither to Denmark nor to Norway. With all due respect to these exemplary democracies, no extraordinary achievement is involved in maintaining a liberal democracy in the prosperous and peaceful northwestern corner of Europe where democracy has been deeply rooted for generations and national conflicts are unknown. Praising such countries for their democracy is rather like praising angels for not succumbing to temptation. The Nobel prize for democracy should go to two non-Western countries vastly different from each other, where democracy with many flaws has emerged and flourished under nearly impossible conditions – India and Israel. Saying so is in no way intended to minimize the flaws, or the need to confront and rectify them. An old Israeli joke said that in Germany there is an economic miracle, and in Israel it’s a miracle that there is an economy. The state of Israel’s economy has improved since then; so has the state of its democracy. While it is true that in most cases, a democracy (no less than an economy) is better served by pointing out the flaws with a view to correcting them than by celebrating the achievements, nevertheless it is sometimes worth our while to recall what a miracle it is, in this country, that there is a democracy

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