"What's wrong with democracy" is a book which argues against democracy, using Athens (especially under Pericles) as a negative example.



Are we to believe the author, democracy leads to overspending, imperialism and war. No less!



This line of argument is, of course, difficult to take seriously. What about dictatorships? Don't they lead to overspending, imperialism and war? What about the Roman Empire? What about the Macedonians: Alexander the Great, Ptolemy, Cleopatra? Weren't they into overspending, imperialism and war? Please note that the Macedonians never went through a democratic phase. They were always oligarchic or autocratic. The argument that the Roman Empire happened because of the democracy of the Roman Republic, cannot be used here. And what about the overspending and wars of the "constitutional" monarchies in Europe during the late medieval and early modern periods?



The author doesn't seem to want an outright "dictatorship", however. But what on earth does he want? An oligarchy with strong civic spirit? Something like Sparta, perhaps? Sparta also waged wars of conquest. Or like Carthage? They, too, waged wars of aggression and conquest. Hannibal, anyone? What about the plans of the oligarchic slave states in the American South to expand at the expense of American Indians, Mexicans and Cubans? Oligarchies are no better than autocracies in these regards. Or democracies, for that matter.



Loren Samons attacks "diversity" in contemporary America. But a strong civic spirit isn't incompatible with diversity, since the citizens can agree to be united on some issues and diverse on others. The State of Israel is an example of such a nation. Besides, what kind of diversity is the author attacking, anyway? It's been a while since I read this book, but I don't remember him ever speaking out on the subject. Desegregation? Gay rights? Female math professors, perhaps? What about the right of Jews not to attend evangelical-controlled public schools (an issue about 100 years ago in New York State)?



I strongly suspect that Loren Samons' isn't really against "democracy" as such. He seems to have a crush on Pericles, whom he admires because he was a strong leader who dared to tell the demos when they were demanding all the wrong things. I think ideas such as those of Samons, idiosyncratic as they might sound, reflect the thinking of elite groups who long for the time when democracy was the preserve of White, male heterosexuals of a mostly Protestant extraction. "Wars" and "overspending" have nothing to do with it.



Of course, a similar system to the one these people long for, did exist in ancient times.



Ironically, that system was...Athens.

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