For the ancient Greeks, politics was way of life. We could learn from them In the annals of modern democracy, 2016 has been pretty eventful. For some in Britain and the US, it has been a great year: in this version of events the will of the people, in the form of votes for Brexit and Donald Trump, has smashed triumphantly through the complacent expectations and blinkered preoccupations of a political elite. For others, though, electorates have delivered results that will be self-evidently harmful both to citizens of these nations, and to stability in the wider world. There has been a distinctly authoritarian streak visible, too, from leaders of democracies including India and Turkey. Demagoguery, the scourge of democracy, has reared its head. According to this view, security – the bottom-line responsibility of government – seems imperilled, particularly in the US, where fears grow that internationally agreed measures to alleviate climate change may well be overturned, and loose words from a verbally incontinent incoming president could spark who-knows-what consequences. Continue reading...
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