Yeah, not nice of course, but so what? Without that approach who can say what would have happened?
Probably exactly the same. You know that Plato always wanted the government run by philosophers. They tried it out in Sicily: a total desaster.
And then at least one of the ancient thinkers--Aristotle--thought a democracy to be one of the worst forms of government ever. (He had a scale of six forms of government, from noble kingship over oligarchy and democracy ... to despotism. Aristotle favoured a noble kingship above all others.
And there's by far more than only voting - just look at all the institutions and stuff they had working.
You are partially right, of course. But the fact that not all persons could influence those institutions that were governing them makes me point out the right to vote as the main point of a democracy. Without it, the institutions of government can (and probably will) work against you.
Call it what you will, but the fundamental first steps for *any* kind of democracy were made in those days.
Full ACK. But that does not make those fundations a democracy. I'm not trying to hide those advances to humanity done in those days. I just don't want to give them the label 'democracy'.
The first approaches of federalism were made as well as it was the first time someone else but the rich or the mighty or the clerus was able to have an influence on what is going on. And of course they created the idea of the self-defending democracy.
Rich, mighty, clerus. Hey, we're not talking about the Renaissance, are we?
Humour aside, what was thought and done in ancient Greek might have had a big influence on what we have in our time. But we mustn't forget who to thank for it: the Arabs!
Without them, Europe would have been lost. They were the ones to translate, read and share the Greek philosophers while Europeans were either butchering them, each others or praying to a 'good god'.
Greetz,
Tex
