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Plenty of academics argue that democracy long pre-dated the Athens of two millennia ago. The great Amartya Sen defines democracy as public argument, and so locates it in India centuries before. Whenever it started, monarchy and barbarism have tended to be more widespread. By 1941 there were only 11 democracies left but in the following 50 years an extraordinary surge took place.

As The Economist argued in a fine recent essay, in the Seventies and Eighties autocracy gave way to people power in Greece, Spain, Argentina, Brazil and Chile. This was preceded by its triumph over Nazism in Germany and empire in India; and followed by its triumph over communism in the Soviet Union and apartheid in South Africa. Everyone wanted a piece of it.

But if you look at the past five years, suddenly democracy seems to be in retreat. In the Arab Spring, tyranny gave way to hope, only to be replaced by tyranny. Few fledgling democracies there have worked out. Uprisings in Tehran and more recently Kiev have led to the same familiar rhythm of raised and then dashed hopes. Perhaps the biggest external threat comes from the rise of China, whose managed capitalism and strict controls on freedom present a powerful rival to Western liberalism.

Yet for all that, the biggest threat to democracy is the enemy within. Across advanced democracies everywhere, a hatred of elites and new populism, much of it fuelled by a financial crash in which the rich became richer and the poor became poorer, is eroding the basis of our political system. For different reasons, but at the same time, whole nations are becoming ungovernable.

In America, an anachronistic constitution, theocratic propaganda on cable television and the legalised bribery that is lobbying make government almost impossible. In France, deep corruption, hopeless leadership and the rise of Nationals Marine Le Pen have a similar, stultifying effect. In Britain, the collapse of party allegiance and the expenses scandal have given way to four-party politics and, possibly, an era of hung parliaments. The EU, meanwhile, is a carnival of bureaucracy in which populist xenophobes have their day in the sun.

This is an alarming state of affairs. Churchill was right: democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried. Democracies tend to be richer, more stable and less in favour of war. The freedom they enshrine to boot out government is precious. And our democracy is the result of sacrifices made by generations of men and women who gave their blood and lives so we wouldnt be ruled by thugs and warriors. That is why next time you hear your mate say he cant be bothered to vote, you should slap him across the chops, and keep slapping him, until he grasps the depravity of what hes saying.

By the way, turnout for local and European elections later this month is predicted to be around 30 per cent.

Amol Rajan is editor of The Independent. Twitter: @amolrajan

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Amol Rajan: We must halt the dangerous retreat of democracy