Political change comes about when populations A) realize they are being hard done by, B) see that there is a better way of doing things, and C) mobilize their latent power en masse.
The changes going on in the Middle East today represent the culmination of such a process, ordinary people taking it upon themselves to alter the political landscape which for so long has been weighed against them.
It requires an expansion of consciousness and dauntless courage.
We in the west might applaud their actions and may even wonder why it has taken them so long to get there, but the three catalysts (A + B + C) are not so easily arrived at as it may seem.
For instance, for us in the west to get from A to C it would first require a completely new vision of how things could be better; a definition in other words of B.
We do not have a model to copy.
The Egyptians have numerous models of democracy around the world to emulate and aspire to.
But for people already living in a democracy, there are no improved methods of government.
Something new has yet to be invented or devised.
We may believe that our versions of democracy are flawed, but we don't know yet how to improve on them.
So we may accept that we are at stage A above, but have no concept of what stage B represents.
History shows repeatedly that revolutions filled with the passion of A and C, but without a concept of B, soon fail.
Even in a modern democracy, the majority will is not in itself a prerequisite for change, as one might expect it to be.
It is possible for instance, and quite likely in fact, that the bulk of the population might disagree with what the government is doing at any given time without being able to do anything about it.
The only recourse to change is to wait for the next election.
But when after a series of elections, say over a period of decades, with numerous governments of various political hues, the change required has still not come about, in other words the interests of the majority continue to be ignored, a level of cynicism might set in but the move for real change remains latent and unrealizable.
A nation for instance may have the laudable goal of wishing the gap between rich and poor to be reduced.
When this continuously fails to happen, despite changes in government, there is no other recourse for change.
This leads to electoral cynicism and low electoral turnouts, but no will to change things for the better.
Democracies are imperfect either because succeeding governments are intent on ignoring the will of the majority because they prefer to follow their own agenda and the agenda of a minority of vested interests, or because the main impetus for change does not rest with the government but with bodies outside government who are neither electable nor accountable.
These are the problems of democracy that a vision of B must address, but until B is defined, a strategy that will fire the vision of the electorate, popular social improvements will be as elusive as they are for even the most diehard dictatorships.