Following on from yesterday's voting theme, it appears that the newly-minted democracies have failed to learn one big lesson; that the people get the government they deserve. If they don't educate themselves about the options and just blindly vote, usually the result is far from optimal.

Take the recent polls in Palestine. Hamas wins 76 of the 132 seats and gets invited to form a new government.

The world's reaction: So far almost uniformly negative.

Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ruled out any talks with "an armed terror organisation that calls for Israel's destruction".

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that the US would not give any direct aid to a Palestinian government under Hamas, which it brands a terrorist organisation.

So already the decision is likely to lead to not only a huge step backward on the road to peace in the Middle East (assuming such a thing is even possible), but also a huge reduction in income for the country which wasn't exactly in the rich league to start with.

Already, news comes of clashes between Fatah and Hamas, showing that internally the country is anything but agreeable.

Sure, Hamas removed talk of eliminating Israel from its political campaign, and the process of democracy has the outside chance that it will civilize the group now they have some politcal power. But given the long term campaign of terror, the bus bombings, carnage and death, peace still seems a very long way off.

Of course the Palis aren't alone:

Islamist candidates were embraced in municipal elections in Saudi Arabia; Hezbollah, another US-declared terrorist organisation, was handsomely endorsed as the parliamentary voice of Shiites in Lebanon; the Muslim Brotherhood won 88 of the 150 seats it contested in Egypt; and Iran's newly elected president is a radical who seems to be thoroughly enjoying Western anxiety over Tehran's nuclear program.

Democracy is a double edged sword, increasingly a curved one.