>From: Brad Spangler <brad_spangler@...>

>--- Scott Bieser <scott@...> wrote:
>
> > Well, I endorsed the action, but I don't care to
> > join SDS/MDS, as I
> > think it would be fraudulent on my part. I don't
> > want a democratic
> > society, I want an anarchist society, and the
> > difference between the two
> > is rather enormous.

>In the interests of what I see as clearing up
>confusion, though, let me explain that the small "d"
>democratic in SDS is *supposed* to be about
>participatory democracy as opposed to representative
>democracy. Adherence to thsat ideal would, IMO, result
>in something you might like more than you suspect,
>IMO. We'll see if they adhere to it.
>
>Have a look at some of the stuff Rothbard had to say
>about participatory democracy here:
>
>http://www.mises.org/journals/lar/pdfs/1_2/1_2_4.pdf

The difference between anarchism and democracy, at least when the latter is
taken to its logical conclusion, isn't all that great.

Arguably, anarchism is the ultimate development of the Jeffersonian
democratic principle, in the same sense that Thoreau's government that
governs not at all is the ultimate example of the best government governing
least.

The heart of the Jeffersonian/anglo-republican understanding of democracy
was government by consent. And the smaller the unit of government, the
closer that consent approached to unanimity, the better. Majority rule was
not the defining feature--majority rule was just a proxy for consent, an
imperfect way to simulate it when genuinely unanimous consent was
impossible.

So devolving all government to direct democratic town meetings and
neighborhood assemblies is a big step in the right direction. And going a
step further, depriving the town meetings of the power to collect payment
for services from unwilling clients and allowing competing service
providers, takes us the rest of the way: we're at the point where anarchism
and radical democracy coincide.

***************************************
Kevin Carson
Mutualist.Org: Free Market Anticapitalism
http://www.mutualist.org/
Mutualist Blog http://mutualist.blogspot.com/