THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY. Steve Zolno
to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition.44
This “equal justice to all” actually applied only to the ten percent of persons who were citizens.
The Athenians and Spartans both voted on whether to enter the war against each other.45 Athens was the largest and most influential democracy of its time, but engaged in increasing subjugation of other city states who were members of its “alliance” – even some that wished to remain independent.
The Peloponnesian war increased in intensity over the course of twenty-seven years, and according to Thucydides, both the Athenians and Spartans provided severe punishments for “allies” who sought to break free.46 With the defeat of Athens ended the first great experiment with democracy we know of – an idea that, according to many scholars, was not revived in practice for nearly two thousand years. But Athens was a direct democracy rather than the representative model that we have today. The vast majority of the population was made up of slaves, women and children who were ineligible to vote or participate in government. And as we shall see, there have been elements of democracy in many states since that time, although most have not been called by that name.
Socrates – as portrayed by his pupil Plato – championed the idea of questioning all that we think we know about others, the world, and ourselves. He taught that as we rid ourselves of preconceptions we arrive at a greater sense of truth.47 Plato’s pupil Aristotle pioneered what today we might call the “scientific method,” or “empiricism,” which advocated using actual observation to establish our concepts of the world rather than relying solely on beliefs or logic.
About a century after the Peloponnesian war, Alexander (“the Great”) of Macedonia (north of Athens) rose to power. He forged the first Western empire that spanned from North Africa to India. He marched with 10,000 or more men across thousands of miles, recruiting more along his path who were fascinated by his legend. He overthrew the Persian Empire and was welcomed by the Egyptians in 332 BCE because of the oppression of the Persians. In Egypt he established his new city, Alexandria, which replaced Athens as the most important cultural center of the ancient world. Alexandria had the greatest library and museum of its time, and had many of the great thinkers of the era among its residents, including Galen, the renowned physician, and the mathematician Euclid who laid the foundations for geometry.48 Alexander’s sudden death in 323 BCE at the age of 33, perhaps from influenza, caused a battle for succession among his generals, with Egypt being taken over by Alexander’s friend and general, Ptolemy I.49 One legacy of Alexander was that so large a geographical area could be united under one rule – soon to be imitated by Rome.
At around the time that the Greeks were moving from prehistory to written history, a well-documented civilization already was aging in China, which was on its third dynasty. Traditional Chinese history tells us that there was a gradual transition from a tribal society based on clans, from about 5000 BCE, to a state-level society, with the establishment of the Xia Dynasty in 2000 BCE, although modern archeological evidence doesn’t always match this narrative. This yielded to the Shang Dynasty starting in about 1600 BCE, which practiced writing, had walled cities and horse-drawn carriages. Although this system has been compared with feudalism, it was centrally governed, and eventually yielded to the Zhou Dynasty, starting in about 1000 BCE, which lasted through the time of classical Greece, to 256 BCE. Rulers sought to shift allegiance from the more democratic clan to the less democratic state, and provided severe punishments for those who resisted the new order. Their dynastic system included burying hundreds of “companions” with the elite in their tombs.50
The Greeks were well-known for their consumption of wine at lengthy philosophical seminars, as portrayed by Plato, and at their feasts at which Bacchus, the god of good living, was invoked.
From Plato’s Symposium:
Socrates took his seat . . . and had his meal. . . . When dinner was over, they poured a libation to the god, sang a hymn, and — in short — followed the whole ritual. Then they turned their attention to drinking. At that point, Pausanias addressed the group: “Well gentlemen, how can we arrange to drink less tonight? To be honest, I still have a terrible hangover from yesterday, and I could really use a break. I dare say most of you could, too, since you were also part of the celebration. So let’s try not to overdo it.”
The Museum of Wine in Art at Château Mouton-Rothschild near Bordeaux, France, houses a magnificent Greek wine vessel from about 500 BCE that features mythical figures in black on gold, including Pan, god of music, playing his pipe.
Although China was more egalitarian in its tribal stages, throughout the long history of Chinese dynasties there is no record of efforts to provide decision-making power to anyone other than those at the top. Their system was fused to ancestor worship – honoring the past and those who ruled with the authority of ancient tradition. However, challengers occasionally did overcome those in authority and establish their own dynasties, mainly through war, but tribal groups generally were absorbed into the dominant dynasty. For most of its history, Chinese law was mainly a list of punishments for prescribed infractions.51
Toward the end of the Zhou dynasty, there was a move toward greater democratization during the Warring States period (481-221 BCE), in which Chinese historians tell us that over one million people were killed. With the elimination of many of the elite, military and civic promotions needed to be based more on merit than lineage.52
Confucius, who died in 479 BCE, was a scholar who had only a handful of followers at his death. But his reputation based on the sayings attributed to him grew over the centuries and affected the Chinese view of duty and order: “I transmit but do not innovate. I am truthful in what I say and devoted to antiquity.” His teachings emphasized the importance of sons obeying fathers and wives obeying husbands.53 Central to his ideas is that peace of mind comes from accepting traditions and one’s situation in life.
The absolutism of Chinese emperors left no room for the development of democratic incentives. In an effort to suppress the idea of education for the masses – particularly traditional Confucian teachings – Qin Xi-huang in 213 BCE ordered the burning of all books and the execution of 460 scholars who refused to give them up. Despite continual rebellion under the next dynasty – the Han – the nobles who rebelled never were successful in overcoming absolute central power or in sharing government decisions as eventually happened in Western democracies.
The controlling Chinese aristocrats slowly became wealthier over the next four hundred years. Money lending increased these disparities by creating debt for the poor. Eventually the nobility avoided paying taxes or participating in the state to the extent that it collapsed. We will see the same patterns among the elite in Europe. It wasn’t until the eleventh century that centralized power included an administrative system that allowed promotion within the government based on ability rather than patrimony.54
The claim to legitimacy of Chinese rulers throughout history was based on the “Mandate of Heaven,” similar to the Divine Right of Kings that was eventually overthrown in Europe.55 The treachery between kin was probably more extreme than Shakespeare could have imagined, and would have provided grist for many great plays if only the Elizabethans had known of the excesses of these ancient dynasies.56
In the Western hemisphere, Peru’s first inhabitants arrived as early as 10,000 BCE, and sophisticated societies arose there around 3,000 BCE. The Peruvians raised and wore cotton long before Europeans even knew of it.57 In Mexico, the Olmec civilization flourished nearly as far back as that of the Chinese, as evidenced by the calendars they created. Starting in about 1800 BCE they were