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Entry: Correcting Richard Link: http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/correcting_richard#25809 Post contents: That all people, in principle, are capable of democracy is as much true as that all people are capable of reading and writing, and doing math. But as you do not expect people to read and write without books and paper and ink to write with, you do not expect people to practice democracy without their proper tools - in this case a civic culture, a willingness to see the general interest above the particular interest of family, ethnic group, religion, or social class, and a willingness to debate differences in a civilized way, to seek to convince others, and to accept being convinced. If people cannot master those basics, then, until they do, they cannot have democracy - w what they will have will be a chaotic period between despotisms (and despotism will be embraced because it is more peaceful, and things can get done). I can recomend "Why Democracies Fail" by Norman L. Stamps, who described the process very well - basing his studies on the European countries after World War I. I can also recommend "Building democracy in Ireland" by Jeffrey Prager, where he describes the one glaring exception to the panorama described by Stamps, and how it got that way. The problem is not with a particular people. The problem is that democracy is difficult to master, and when we try to spread it, quite often all we get is a cargo cult of democracy, which of course, fails. Sent at: 2008 05 16