I love these sorts of articles. I had no idea how far down the roots of our political system went. Thanks.

Congratulations Ellen.

This has got to be thew best article ever published by OLO.

It should be required reading in every school in every year for every Australian child.

It's contents should be the cornerstone of any test of knowledge for new iimmigrants.

Politicians should be required to recite it from memory ... every day... and some hourly.

Public Servents should be required to read it every morning.

Flouters of the conventions involved should have it tattooed on their foreheads.

Ellen,

Excellent article. I will need to come-back and have a closer look.

A few quick points, though:

The various City-States of Ancient Greece had autonomy to determine their own form of democracy. Plato didn't believe in the rule of the many. Greek democracy was collectivist rather invidualist in nature, because individuuals identified themselves with community life (Wasserman, 1941).

Under the Roman Republic democratic ideals gained the protection of legal doctrine.

I was at seminar in Hong Kong and met Gore Vidal, who said the US never wanted full democracy. Note it has an Electoral College and the French concept of Fraternity is missing its Declaration of Independence. The Amercian colonies may have accepted taxes had they achieved citizenship representation in the HP in England.

The Protestant Reformation allowed for private conscience to develop, so individuals could thing for themselves.

It is clear that the West has a cultural tradition which we should be proud of. The black armband gang would have us believe that we should be ashamed of our culture and stress the equality of all cultural and social traditions. This is patently false.

The soft left in general needs a reality check or, at the very least, a better sense of perspective.

Ellen,

In my re-read, I do note you did mention Plato and alluded the significance of Roman Lawn. I apologise.

Many of the ideas of the [esoteric] Attic Greeks would have been lost when the Western Empire fell [476]. One reason would have been the switch from the Attic Greek to Vulgar Latin and Koine Greek. Spain was significant in knowledge transfers given he various occupations by the Muslims and Christians.

I would like to see the [Australia] People have the power to ostracise a Leader from Office, without necessily changing Parties.

There was an attempt to form a democray in Iceland circa. 1100, but I don't remember the details. TV documentary.

Kind regards.

Why is the West different from the rest?
Because the West or more precisely the advanced capitalist countries have repressed them, held back their development, and plundered their resources. Known as colonial plunder that was often dressed up as humanitarian aid, the white mans burden, or at times democracy.
What a paupers broth and sham is Ellens so called democracy. We get no sense that this "democracy" is only the rule of a financial aristocracy or ruling elite. Who make all the decisions at the expense of society and ruin life for the mass majority. How Murdoch or the Packers pick the politicians and promote them as statesmen whilst giving them their daily orders. Who today are stealing or wrecking all the essential services and resources called privatisation.
In Ellens "democracy" we get no sense that 600 million child labors globally are exploited by day and abused by night. Nor the criminal war taking place in Iraq for oil that has cost the lives of 2.4 million and 4 million homeless done under the guise of democracy. Nor how the governments are putting the boot into the disabled. Nor the war being carried out against aboriginals in the Northern Territory.