Though neoreaction is typified by a suspicion of democratic government and ideology and has produced numerous, powerful theoretical arguments against democracy, it must be conceded that the empirical case is not nearly so strong. Democracies have certainly made mistakes, pursued foolish policies, and committed atrocities, but the historical record does not show unequivocally that democracy is much worse as a form of government than other arrangements. The major problem with the empirical case against democracy is the lack of data. The first democracies arose in Greece, but we have good historical records for Athens alone, with partial information about Sparta, […]