Accidental empires

‘Is democracy on the march or is it in retreat?’ screams a headline in the Washington Times. The question was put to Condoleezza Rice last week, and I must say, for a little-to-show-for-it secretary of state, she answered very well: ‘Freedom does not advance on a steady trajectory — setbacks and detours should be expected…’

Americans seem to be obsessed with democracy, now even more so than during the Cold War. We (ancient) Greeks take credit for it, but don’t really consider it for others, only for ourselves. Athens became a democratic city-state in various stages. The poorest were eventually made eligible for the magistracies, but the generalship always remained in aristocratic hands. When someone got too big for his breeches, like Themistocles, out he went. But he craftily persuaded the Persian Xerxes to attack the Greeks in Salamis, only to score an even greater victory than Marathon, and it was all his own.