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The Forum > Article Comments > Why is the West different from the rest? > Comments

Why is the West different from the rest? : Comments

By Ellen Goodman, published 20/5/2008

An outline of the centuries-long, tortuous and often fortuitous route by which 'democracy' became established in the Western world.

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This is a very top down view of democracy. Ellen doesn't deal with the mass struggles from below for democracy. She mentions the English Civil war and the French Revolution, but mises the important point that these were among other things festivals of the oppressed when the mass of humanity entered onto the landscape of history.

The struggle for union rights and the vote shows in fact that our rulers opposed democracy for all (at least in Britain and even in the US where the revolution from below did not see blacks as equal).

The development of British and European capitalism was built on exploitation at home - eg driving the peasants off the land and into the factories, turning them into wage slaves - and exploitation abroad - the process of colonisation which saw the British especially but also the Spanish, Portuguese and French plunder the riches of the world and suppress the local populations for cheap products.

And there is no mention of working class revolutions like the Paris Commune and the 1917 Russian revolution, revolutions from below which saw the most democratic form of government established - workers councils with the right of automatic recall, the average wage for representatives, elected through the workplace with constant debates going on there and in the workers' councils and so on. The rise of Stalinism represented the counter-revolution and the destruction of these ideals.

The magnificent revolutions in eastern Europe to overthrow Stalinism show that the thirst for freedom and democracy lives on in the heart of working people everywhere. In fact I would go so far as to say the very process of capitalist production hot wires this thirst for freedom and democracy into workers.

That is why, like the twentieth century, the twenty first century will also be the century of revolution.
Posted by Passy, Tuesday, 20 May 2008 7:37:06 PM
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Passy

Democracy is still working and evolving...
Socialism failed. As did your revolutions... But you seem to be still spinning.
Time to leave the failures behind Passy.
Posted by keith, Tuesday, 20 May 2008 8:22:44 PM
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Much interesting material here. A couple of comments. First, the Romans actually had secret ballots and organised the early political protection of underrepresented groups, the Tribunes of the People, and effectively proto-political parties. This was all turned to tokenism under the Empire, but remained a model right through western history. It is a pity that Ellen's article makes no mention of the republican commune city states of medieval Italy. These influenced the English barons, invented commercial merchant wealth, a kind of free enterprise model of social groups, other than church and king, and were open if not fully democratic. Cambridge historian Quentin Skinner says the Italian city states of middle ages are important in the history of democracy and that they left a legacy of 'participation'. Finally,as practiced, democracy has always been flawed and bitter bottom up struggles for rights have been needed to defend and extend it, often ruthlessly crushed, in Europe as elsewhere.
Posted by Bertie7, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 12:31:08 AM
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johncee

Flight Centre has a special offer on flights to Cuba.

Pack your bags and get on the next flight, then you can live your dream or delusion -- take your pick.
Posted by Cowboy Joe, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 12:43:09 AM
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Roll up, Roll up people, who wants to see the last surviving communists in captivity.

Look no further than comrade Johncee1945 and comrade Passy. These two are among the few of these endangered species still practicing their bizarre cult in the wild. The failure of communism and socialism globally has not registered in these small brained mammals. Their numbers were understandably thinned after the wall came down in 1989 and the brutality of their socialist paradises became clear to all but the most ardent supporters. However, a small number, perhaps hiding underground for the last 50 years, have survived to carry on the species to protect against extinction.

We are proud to present johncee the walking talking human slogan. And Passy, the irrepressible fantasist. Please people, don't feed the animals. They are nurtured on a special diet of Marxist "media" and pseudo green religous fervor. Anything else might break the spell and leave the species extinct. And we can't have that, can we?

Scientists are working every day to extract DNA from these creatures and recreate them in the laboratory for study. It seems they have not yet found any practical use for them, however. They're still looking.
Posted by Paul.L, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 8:55:59 AM
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Why are some posters so quick to claim this history of completely different times, places, traditions, nations, people and races as "our" culture or "our" heritage?

An uncritical reading of history tends to create the sense of a linear, narrative drive of progress towards our current "perfected" state. This is an illusion.

The events of history are mostly a result of happenstance, opportunism, pragmatism and a good dose of rat-cunning on the part of the participants. As Hamlet said "There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow."

If you want to wrap up that whole disparate mass of events into a bundle and call it "our" culture, go ahead, but you're basically doing the same thing as tribal people who paint on the walls of their cave and make up stories to go with them. Oh look, the Big Hunter killed the Big Moose. We're proud he did that. Let's make it part of "our" culture.

What is this unitary 'West'? Remember that the various democracies set up in the 'West' were usually done in the face of mortal opposition from members of the very same 'West'. Those murderous despots, those bloodthirsty crusading kings, tyrants - and yes, Stalin and Hitler too - they are all part of this 'West' that you wish to proudly claim as "our" culture.

Why not leave the cultural baggage to the dead people and stop looking for your future in the past?
Posted by Mercurius, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 10:39:03 AM
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