>Say, rather, that the Bolshevik system of rule seems to generate an
>absurdly high probability that a murderous paranoid psychopath will
>gain absolute power and wreak fearful slaughter. Pol Pot... Kim Il
>Sung... Mao... Stalin... Ceausescu.
That a series of American presidents have directed the deaths of millions is what? A systemic problem? Or just monetary aberrations in an otherwise hunky-dory system?
>I can't think of a system of rule that on average gave more power to
>worse people. There's something structural going on here. But I've
>never been able to satisfactorily explain what.
Krushchev & Brezhnev were hardly monsters. Post-Stalin Soviet life was mostly about stability and getting by.
A problem for anyone who believes in democracy: Stalin was broadly popular (and still is among lots of Russians). Explanations that rely on psychopathology or "totalitarianism" evade that point.
Doug