On 7/17/07, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Tomasz Ganicz wrote:
2007/7/16, Jimmy Wales jwales@wikia.com:
We just don't know. I think it is not safe to assume either luck or expression of preference.
"Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." :-)
Winston Churchill, speech in the House of Commons, 11 November 1947.
Churchill was very good at coining clichés.
Arguably Churchill was wrong, btw.
I like Thucydides line about the rule of the 5000, echoed by later roman historians that during the brief rule of the 5000 Athens was ruled better than at any other time (meaning during the democracy or during the rule of 30).
The fact that blood based aristrocracies tend to corrupt with time, does not mean that functionally meritocratic systems do not rule better than the raw mob.
This isn't very far off-topic, btw. Wikipedia currently has a selective franchise somewhat like the early American Colonies, but based on community service rather than land-ownership.
-- Jussi-Ville Heiskanen, ~ [[User:Cimon Avaro]]