Re: CHAT: Democracy

Mike Adams wrote:

> I think alot of what he meant was Iceland is the longest current
> existing Democracy, especially since Greece has only recently become a
> democracy, [...]
That's not true, though.  If you accept universal manhood suffrage as a
reasonable metric of democracy, then the US has been close to a democracy
since about the 1820s or 1830s or so, far before any other developed
nation.  The only exception to that rule is if you count the slaves, which is,
granted, a very large exception. At the same time in Britain, however, there
was a huge debate over the extension of the franchise from *5%* to *7%*
of the adult population.  The property requirement for parliamentary
elections in France under the restored monarchy was similarly high, IIRC.

Compare this to Iceland.  Iceland has only been an independent state since
1944, when it naturally chose a democratic constitution.  It can hardly
be said to be an old, lineally descended democracy when it did not even
exist, diplomatically speaking, until well into the 20th century.

BTW: Mike, do you think you could include the material that you're responding
to in your posts?  It makes it more difficult for the rest of us to respond when
it's not immediately clear what you're referring to.

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Tom Wier   |     "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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