David Cameron says West needs to 'rediscover its democratic mojo'

David Cameron has said the West should "rediscover it's democratic mojo" and called for "a bit of a fightback" against populism.

The former prime minister was speaking at the launch of a report on "fragile states" in Washington.

Asked about the rise of populist movements in Western democracies, he said: "I think we need to rediscover our democratic mojo in the West and be proud of the fact that we are real democracies.

"We don’t just have elections every five years. We have the rule of law, we have independent courts, we have the ability to uncover wrongdoing, we have the free press. These are the things that really mark us out.

"The truth is you only truly defeat corruption if you have a system that has all those elements of real democracy, and I think we need to mount a bit of a fightback to emphasise that these things are not democratic nice-to-haves for a strong society, but are actually key part of our long term economic success."

Mr Cameron added: "Yes there's been a rise of populism in the West. I've argued very strongly that the answer to that is to deal with the causes of the populism, make sure our economies are working for everybody to try and make sure people aren't left behind by globalisation."

In recent months the former Conservative leader has been chairing the Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, investigating how "fragile states" beset by poverty and corrupt governments can evolve into functioning democracies.

Conclusions have included that they should not hold elections too soon before the "building blocks" of democracy are in place.

Asked about the scandals engulfing Facebook, Mr Cameron said there had been a "huge change" and there was "a lot more to be done"

He said: "If you go back to Facebook’s first reaction after the fake news scandal it was sort of 'Nothing to do with me guv - we’re just a tube through which people communicate'.

"Now, Facebook’s approach is to say we’re very worried about this. So, I think that there’s lots of challenges we face but the answer is not to ignore the rise of populism but to deal with its challenges."

Mr Cameron declined to take questions about Brexit. Earlier this week, the former prime minster said he did not regret calling the EU referendum, but still wished it had gone the other way.