RE: capitalist versus socialist progress

["Nathan Newman" <nathan.newman@xxxxxxxx>]

>On Behalf Of Brad De Long
>
> I like political democracy rather more than the next guy/gal (on this
> list, at least). But it isn't the key to the riddle of history...
>
> http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/jim_crow_laws.htm

Then again, it was democracy that passed the Civil Rights Acts after the
Civil War that banned any kind of Jim Crow laws.  It took an anti-democratic
Supreme Court to strike down that national law and allow the South to take
away the right to vote and equal rights from blacks down south.

Not that majorities can't do very bad things at times, but most of the worst
sins of democracy usually start with a deformation-- a Reichstag fire, a
Supreme Court suppressing a movement, and so on.

And the basic economic point remains, without democracy, no socialist system
can hope to succeed.

-- Nathan Newman