Democracy may feed envy but it is inspired by hope. And hope is surely stronger than all the other visceral emotions that accompany it.

We have just witnessed one of the wonders of democracy in action. The mighty have been brought low, the low have been lifted up and the mediocre have remained, well, mediocre. The process was expertly handled by the Electoral Commission and the ruling party has graciously accepted the beating it received at the hands of the electorate. All very exemplary.

But here's the thing we need to remind ourselves of - the last thing that people use when they vote is their heads. Beneath all the fancy "the people have spoken" rhetoric is the seething reality of resentment, anger and revenge.

As I looked at the leader board I experienced no small measure of schadenfreude - that visceral feeling of pleasure at the suffering that the ruling party was experiencing. At last they are receiving their just deserts! But not nearly as much as the outright sweetness of revenge that Jacob Zuma must have been feeling.

One of the most insightful observations that Alexis de Tocqueville made of modern democracy was that it was the engine of envy. While it offers people the means to become equal, it also continually withholds that equality. It awakens the passion for equality without...