Secular Western representative democracy—despite its free elections and civil rights—is a failure (Maududi believed) for two reasons. Because secular society has "divorced" politics and religion (Maududi believed), its leaders have "ceased to attach much or any importance to morality and ethics" and so ignore their constituents' interests and the common good. Furthermore, without Islam "the common people are incapable of perceiving their own true interests". An example being the Prohibition law in the United States, where despite the fact that (Maududi states) "it had been rationally and logically established that drinking is injurious to health, produces deleterious disorder in human society", the law banning alcohol consumption was repealed by the American Congress.