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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (156074)	1/12/2005 4:24:13 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The Soviet Union, Roman Empire and most other large empires were simple dominance kleptocratic hierarchies. Democracy is the key to success The Soviet Union I won't argue about, but that's an unfair slam on the Roman Empire. Simple kleptocratic dominance hierarchies cannot last more than a couple of generations before fall under their own weight. The Roman Empire lasted for over 500 years (over 1000 in the East). You don't do that unless you have managed to create a system which outsiders want to join, not destroy. That was the Roman genius. Even in its end, you could say that the West Roman Empire was not so much destroyed by the barbarian invasions as loved to death by the influx of peoples who could not assimilate enough to figure out how to keep the system going.