ABSTRACT
If one looks at political history as it really took place in traditional cultures (including Europe’s premodern history), then one finds that generally the different forms of governance were all variations of autocracy, defined as a form of rule ‘in which the jurisdiction substantially lies with one single representative, who rules arbitrarily, but not necessarily tyrannically, with neither personal nor institutional restrictions, and in particular without the participation, assent or control of the subjects’.1 The real historical dynamics of autocracy encompassed the possibility of extreme despotism and tyranny, but also transitions to oligarchic arrangements. ‘Democratic’ rule, understood as rule by public assembly, only existed once in the city-states of ancient Greece (whereby only the full citizens counted as the demos, but not the majority, who were without rights).2
