I note that it’s difficult to point out changes that one thinks are outside the current Overton Window, and thus I worry that most discussions of this topic will be tilted towards “we need fifty Stalins!”.
For example, some historical class-based systems had strongly different values of life for the different classes, in a way that seems roughly in line with their military value. (The armored and armed professional warrior can do what they like, and the manual peasant laborer has to stay out of their way.) Then mass armies and cheap, easily learned weapons dramatically changed the military calculus, and equalized the value of people, making mass democracy more sensible than it was historically. (If the peasants outvote the samurai, but the samurai could crush the peasants if it came to fighting, why would the samurai accept the votes of the peasants? If the samurai can out-privilege the peasants, but the peasants can crush the samurai if it came to fighting, why would the peasants accept the privileges of the samurai?) But will this continue to be the case, or will future developments further shift the military calculus?
But a ‘political power flows from the barrel of a gun’ story for the adoption of democracy is not a very flattering story, especially compared to the story of acknowledging the inner light that shines within each person, that democracy is uniquely positioned to listen to.
If your goal is to minimize violence, the best political system is likely to be one that gives people power in proportion to their capacity for violence. Otherwise people with little political power but lots of capacity for violence have an incentive to commit violence in order to change the status quo.
I note that it’s difficult to point out changes that one thinks are outside the current Overton Window, and thus I worry that most discussions of this topic will be tilted towards “we need fifty Stalins!”.
For example, some historical class-based systems had strongly different values of life for the different classes, in a way that seems roughly in line with their military value. (The armored and armed professional warrior can do what they like, and the manual peasant laborer has to stay out of their way.) Then mass armies and cheap, easily learned weapons dramatically changed the military calculus, and equalized the value of people, making mass democracy more sensible than it was historically. (If the peasants outvote the samurai, but the samurai could crush the peasants if it came to fighting, why would the samurai accept the votes of the peasants? If the samurai can out-privilege the peasants, but the peasants can crush the samurai if it came to fighting, why would the peasants accept the privileges of the samurai?) But will this continue to be the case, or will future developments further shift the military calculus?
But a ‘political power flows from the barrel of a gun’ story for the adoption of democracy is not a very flattering story, especially compared to the story of acknowledging the inner light that shines within each person, that democracy is uniquely positioned to listen to.
If your goal is to minimize violence, the best political system is likely to be one that gives people power in proportion to their capacity for violence. Otherwise people with little political power but lots of capacity for violence have an incentive to commit violence in order to change the status quo.