[wastoute]

Read Herodotus. Read the Bible. Xerxes was pretty successful. When you thik about it, David and Solomon were dictators. Read Thucydides. Full of dictators. That was pretty much the way it was done back then. The whole "democracy" deal was kinda new in Athens. Herodotus talks about an earlier experiment in democracy that "ended in chaos". This is why our forefathers created a REPUBLIC and not a democracy. One of the problems today is nobody studies the Classics anymore...

[The Shrew]

Read Herodotus. Read the Bible. Xerxes was pretty successful. When you thik about it, David and Solomon were dictators. Read Thucydides. Full of dictators. That was pretty much the way it was done back then.

I have to respectfully disagree with a part of your assertion. I believe there is a vast difference between Xerxes and David and Solomon. The Kings of Israel were answerable to God. They knew that and were held accountable to that authority by the prophets Samuel and Nathan. Whether you are a Christian or Jew or not that accountability - either real or perceived - makes them something far different than a dictator.

Dictators are accountable to nothing and No one but POWER!

Regards,

TS