orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) (11/27/85)
To continue my earlier article: it is indeed (unfortunately)
simply a myth that democratic nations are less likely to
seek either War or domination over other countries.
We can see examples throughout history of democratic nations
either:
1) dominating and subjugating their neighbors
2) fighting other democratic countries
We can see this as early as the Greeks: although Athens was
indeed a limited democracy, this did not prevent Athens from
forcing nations into the Athenian League and exacting tribute
from those nations for Athens' "protection".
Athenian citizens never protested this extraction from other
nations for their own largesse: rather it was popular to
demand as much tribute as possible so Athens citizens would find
their own pockets full.
Britain is of course a democracy and yet that hardly stopped
Britain from taking over India, and countless other regions
throughout the world. It was indeed true at the end of the
nineteenth century that "the set never set upon the British Empire".
The fact that such imperialism meant neither democracy nor
any advancement of human rights in the regions conquered by
Britain's democracy did not seem to matter much. Indeed Lenin
argued (actually borrowing Hobson's argument) that the
extraction of wealth from other nations by British imperialism
promoted popular support among the British working classes
despite the grossly unequal distribution of wealth domestically.
Our own country engaged in countless wars against the Indians,
war with Mexico, war with Spain, and numerous invasions
and military interventions in Latin America and beyond.
Suffice it to say then, that it is hardly true that democratic
countries have not sought Wars of aggression and conquest in
the past: they most certainly have sought such Wars.
Since election in a democratic nation depends upon the votes
of one's own citizens alone and doesn't depend one whit upon
the opinions of other peoples dominated or conquered there is
every incentive in a democratic nation to extract all the wealth
possible from other nations to enrich the voters in one's own nation.
In fact, as Thorstein Veblen pointed out, it is an excellent way
to get votes and divert attention from domestic inequities and
problems. Thus World War I was used as the excuse for the
Palmer Raids on socialists and massive jailings of labor leaders.
After all, they were harming the "war effort" by conducting
strikes and struggles for workers' rights.
So much for part 1, the next article deals with examples of
part 2: wars between democracies.
tim sevener whuxn!orb