In the beginning years of this blog, I published a series of articles called “Meditations on Democracy and Dictatorship” which are still regularly read today, and have had some influence. They still elicit inquiries from remote corners of the globe. They are now buried in the back pages of the blog, so I’m moving them up the chronological counter so they can have another round of visibility, especially (I hope) with younger readers. I am re-posting them in their original sequence over part of 2018. Some references in these “meditations” will date them to 2007–2008, when they were written. But I will leave them un-retouched, though I may occasionally append some retrospective notes. Mostly, they deal with abstract issues that do not need updating.
For this Meditation on Democracy, the sixth in the series, I will undertake a critique of some currently dominant ideas about the role of democracy in human history, and attempt to provide a conceptual framework for looking at democracy in a different, more realistic way. This will mean that some of the ground covered in earlier meditations will be revisited. It will also draw on the collaborative work between myself and Prof. Steven Muhlberger, published in the Journal of World History, and on the World History of Democracy Website. I am exclusively responsible, however, for the views expressed in this series.