On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:47:19 +1000, Herodotus
wrote:

On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:29:31 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:



Sorry, but my home town was holding "Town Meetings" in 1600-something.
A "Town Meeting" ,for the democratically challenged, is a meeting of
all the town's peoples where past and future problems are thrashed out
in public and a "Select Man" elected to run things for the next year.
Very close th the Viking "Thing".

Granted we had a king to take care of the larger problems but as far
as local affairs were concerned most of the New England states had a
primitive form of democracy (the kind where the people ARE listened
to) since the earliest days.

To the best of my knowledge Kiwi Land was unknown at that time, except
to the folks who stick their tongue out in greeting who didn't really
practice a modern form of democracy -- more a "Well, you lost, so into
the pot you go" sort of government :-)



Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct Address is bpaige125atgmaildotcom)

Ah Bruce....,

What about the women though as well as the unpropertied such as
domestic servants and labourers, not to mention the slaves - and
Indians? At least there was the advantage that your non-friend Wilbur
could not vote. I don't think that a derelict with a derelict little
yellow sailboat would have qualified as a property owner.

It seems that this form of democracy was more akin to that in
classical Athens where in a population of 200,000, only about 20,000
'citizens' could actually vote. From my readings it appears that the
politicians and the democratic process were akin to those of today
with vested interests giving out crowd pleasers and with much rabble
rousing. Besides, many of them had to be forced to the agora to vote
anyway. Myself, I prefer the quiet sense of such as Solon. If only you
could get a presidential candidate with his integrity.

The Maori at the time may not have had the democracy of one man, one
vote but they did have the possibility of one of the best forms of
government - a benign dictatorship. Can we really say that we have
democracy in the true sense when our electors are not informed, ill
informed and much is kept from us by our politiocal masters?

As for the Maori eating their political opponents, one of my favourite
presidents, Bill Clinton, had his aid eating him, and quite tasty he
must have proved if accounts of the frequency of occurance are
correct.

Quid pro quo.

cheers
Peter

Touche!


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct Address is bpaige125atgmaildotcom)