Princeton University Press; 424 pages; $35 and £30.beliefs about democracy are that it began in ancient Athens and, on spreading from there, remained peculiarly Western. David Stasavage, a professor of politics at New York University, finds both views mistaken. Without them, he thinks it will be easier to get hopes and fears for present-day democracy into better perspective and balance.
To find out why early democracy occurred where it did, the author draws on evidence from archaeology, soil science, demographics and climate studies. The key, in his account, was information. With big populations, consultation was impractical. Rulers instead sent officials to see how much was grown and, before long, how many young men could be drafted into armies. Bureaucracies emerged. With their aid, autocratic rule imposed itself on local custom. In pre-modern settings, this autocratic bureaucracy was more common where soil was good, yields high and know-how advanced, especially in writing and measuring. Such systems were able to tax heavily.
Modernity and central states, in other words, allowed for either autocracy or democracy. But was there a pattern? Mr Stasavage thinks so. He calls it “sequencing”. “If the early democratic institutions of government by consent are established first,” he writes, “then it is possible to subsequently build a bureaucracy without veering inevitably into autocracy or despotism.” It depends on what went before.
They titled this article like Gladwell would...
Absolutely! But democracy is better by a mile. Please take a look at my recent post, 'Representative Democracy: An Interview with Andrew Feinstein.' See,
Oh, so beautifully placed in the current circumstances, for the new order to come.
Democracy does not have 'strong roots'! Practiced in one City state for a short period of time with very little participation and detested by Plato and Socrates. More two Bob 'journalism'
Why Democracy thrives in places where, Soros, Rockefeller, Musk Bezos, etc are citizens. Cause, the wealth is only a fad, they are really people people. Wanna enact legislation against my interest, sure, why on earth would I have problems with that? Lol
👍yeh, because both ways are billboards that are at the same time mirrrors features about the human behavior, that means, both reflects or amplifies what we, humans, are.
Did you guys by chance get a new editor? Maybe one selected by the money men that bailed you out?
For democracy to thrive, the citizen of that nation have to be well aware and well acquainted with the concept of liberty(among others), not just freedom. Autocracy doesn’t get liberty. They think their people are free
Both are straw men for capitalism for 1000?
E, G'night
Because in order to control, one must first stifle debate. Why do you think under Blairs Gov, pubs started closing down? Why are the globalists using the pandemic to discourage people from meeting in pubs and bars. DebateNow FreeSpeech
Democracy is a scam. It’s not thriving in America. Socialism is.
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