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"for it is conflict combined with consent, not consent alone, which preserves democracy from eroding into oligarchy."
Moses I. FinleyWe must consider not only why the classical theory of democracy appear — Moses I. Finley
"We must consider not only why the classical theory of democracy appears to be in contradiction with the observed practice, but also why the many different responses to this observation, though mutually incompatible, all share the belief that democracy is the best form of political organization."
Moses I. Finley
Moses I. Finley
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Sir Moses Israel Finley was an American-born British academic and classical scholar. His prosecution by the United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security during the 1950s resulted in his relocation to England, where he became an English classical scholar and eventually master of Darwin College, Cambridge. His most notable publication is The Ancient Economy (1973), in which he argued that
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"In Rome much pamphleteering took the form of verses and songs, circulated orally, or of libelli , defamatory placards or broadsheets (whence our word "libel")."
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"What is good for a country? What is the national interest?"
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"In the western world today everyone is a democrat."
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"Perhaps the best known, and certainly the most vaunted, "discovery" of modern public opinion research is the indifference and ignorance of a majority of the electorate in western democracies."
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"The Athenians made mistakes. Which governmental system has not? The familiar game of condemning Athens for not having lived to some ideal of perfection is a stultifying approach."
Moses I. Finley