[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Artillery and sea units (PR#1476)

[Raahul Kumar <raahul_da_man@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Richard Stallman <rms@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>       The difference
>     is just that the Athenians called their form of government _dimokratia_
>     (rule by the people) and the Romans called theirs _res_ _publica_ (the
>     people's `thing' or however one chooses to translate _res_).  The idea
>     of both was popular sovereignty (for a given value of "populus"), but
>     the cultures differed in their interpretation of what that meant.
>     Neither would be considered very democratic in modern (EU or US) terms.
> 
> I beg to differ; I think the Athenian democracy was clearly a real
> democracy.  I don't think many would disagree with that.

I would. Violently. A democracy where you have to own property to be eligible
to vote, excludes 50% of the population(women) and has slaves(1/4 of the
population) is certainly a new definition of the word. And if you moved there
from outside, you would never gain the right to vote.

It is certainly not the type of democracy represented in Freeciv. The democracy
in Freeciv is clearly of a much more modern variety.

You would need to add slavery for historical accuracy. As a practical matter,
it would prove difficult.

> I am not saying it was perfect.  But it did have a lot of features
> designed specifically to prevent the rich few from buying political
> decisions.  The US could learn from them ;-{.

Not just the US. Many countries could learn. 

Actually, I can't help having a soft spot for the Spartans.

Aloha,
RK.

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