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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (25552)	8/31/2001 10:11:22 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Communism arose out of oppression as well. By Russian absolutist standards, the American colonists weren't really oppressed. And that's part of the difference. The American Colonies were part of the First British Empire. The colonies in that empire commonly had colonial legislatures and made many of their own laws. Their basic law was English common law. They were used to the ideas of individual freedom, having legal rights, and democracy. It was natural for them to continue it after independence. The oppressions I mentioned were either historical but known to them, or rare but also known to them. The big difference between the colonies of the First British Empire, and the Second Bitish Empire and also the Russian monarchy which preceded Russian Communism, was that practice at democratic self-government. We have much to thank the British for. But they had practiced a fair degree of self-government in a democratic system for decades before independence. The practice stuck. The Second British Empire came after it was evident that at some point Britain would have to let loose of its original colonies. (Canada, for example, was peacefully granted independence in 1867, as I recall. You can see that democracy also stuck there.) The Second British Empire was largely African. Self-government in these new colonies was rare. And you can see what happened after they were given independence following WWII. They started as democracies, but soon evolved into one form or another of dictatorship.