Ok, fresh off the tablet?
Democracy, as we currently conceive it, was the inspiration of an optimistic Enlightenment; drawing on a corpus of classical thinking which seemed virtuous or useful while tip-toeing around the thrones of reigning monarchs.In classical Athens, on any given day, the enfranchised citizens congregated on the Pynx to listen to their orators and demagogues on the issues and vote immediately with white and black pebbles. That form of direct democracy is reserved today for our juries, when we convene them, and the annual general meetings of our public companies and social clubs.
It is just as well, one might argue. The contemporary criticism of Athenian direct democracy was that it was “reckless and arbitrary.”
Arguable I suppose but Left Blogistan was in the back of my mind as much as Athens in that last remark.