I very much appreciate such thoughtful responses. It seems that most non-civilized societies have had some form of a democratic political process, even if they got to it from a much different perspective. It is the greatest tragedy of human history that Europeans presumed they had nothing to learn from the non-civilized peoples they encountered in their explorations of the planet. (For the record, I use "civilized" in its most literal context: the existence of cities--with all of the cultural baggage that generates.)