Government is Incomplete Conquest

... are alleged to provide their electorates with choice. Cynics might object that, while elections give an electorate the feeling that they have choice, this is only an illusion... ... at least those holding the guns and those managing the gun-holders. Foundations of legitimacy have varied greatly across the many kinds of regimes that have existed throughout... ... aristocracy and from the rising elites of trade and commerce started out adamantly opposed to democracy. They feared and resisted extension of the franchise, and democratization...