Bump great article.
I was just thinking that the word "democracy" has been one of the earliest victims of politically correct re-definition. The "demos" was not every living, breathing hominid in Athens. Franchise was
strictly limited. Slaves, for example, are not part of the
demos. (Go figure, the ownership of
slaves in the first democracy!)
The franchise, once expanded, may never ever voluntarily contract, because that assumes that the majority of looters would actually be willing to sacrifice their legal mandate to loot. A system reaches a certain point of corruption where reform is literally impossible. Change can only be effected through revolution or conquest.