R wrote:
>
> i believe rome wasn't a republic unless one believes the patronage system is
> a form of republic. the romans, like most americans of today, appeared
> willing to give up everything for security. as tacitus said to the
> patronage based senate, paraphrase, "how easily you become slaves."
I agree with most of what you have to say in this post, but in theoretical writing (and that's what your post is) beware of word magic.
Res Publica. The public life of the polis. In the Roman Republic public affairs were conducted in public (with the public being a land-owning oligarchy); in the Empire they were not. If we make words such as "republic" and "democracy" apply only to some narrowly (or ideally) defined essence of our own choosing we begin limiting our own channels of communication with each other and with a larger public.
The United States is a Democracy. Or one very important kind of democracy. We gain nothing by fighting over the word. Almost everyone of age can vote if they want to. Oppression and Repression is carried out (for the most part) through prescribed channels. Only the police (who are controlled by an elected city government) can beat you to death without the police coming after you.
Capitalist democracy is a vicious system, one which destroys people's lives with an efficiency and reach no King or Emperor ever hoped for. I want it destroyed. But let's not emulate the advice of an item in a 1943 Reader's Digest, which went something like this: "Support the war effort. Call Hitler by his right name, Shcickelgruber."
Carrol
Carrol