Evolving democracy - Seanad vote is important to everyone

Democracy and antibiotics may not seem likely bedfellows but, as concepts, they have a lot in common.

When they work they are wonderful and we need not fret unduly about the mechanics of how they achieve so much but rather bask in the security and health they confer and protect.

It is, however, an entirely different story when they do not function as we have come, in an entirely blasé, almost careless way, to expect. Social chaos — as in Syria today and possibly Turkey tomorrow — follows.