Re: chaos baby

[Jan van Oort <jvt@perform.fr>]

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Absolutely agree with the remarks about size: democracy was invented in Athens,
about 600 B.C. It worked excellently there, notably because of the small size of
the <<polis>> (never more than about 50.000 voting residents, the other
inhabitants being the far more numerous slaves and peasants).
Anyway, nobody in this list seems to put into doubt the fact that democracy be the
best (or least bad) solution for government. But there are no proofs of that:
democracy is for us (I am european, and speak and think like a european) a habit
and something granted. But I studied the history of France, and am quite
comfortable with the idea of having a king; <<enlightened despotism>> does have
its good sides, notably the possibility of emotional fixation of the idea of <<the
State>> upon a PERSON, a human being.
And remember: Rome and Athens, for centuries of their history, recurred to having
(temporary) almost almighty tyrants for solving difficult problems. And guess what
? Having problems solved by tyrants WORKED !!



"Bradley D. Moore" wrote:
> Also see Rousseau's comments on the "ideal" democratic example of  Geneva -
> entirely based on the idea that SIZE (smaller == better) is of critical
> importance to a functioning, healthy democracy.  Granted, he was kind of


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