Marxism's failure I was reading this piece by Lee Harris, and it got me thinking... Marxism evolved to a statist culture because it would not brook any dissension from the masses with regard to the future of the state. The State decided what constituted Justice, regardless of the will or desires of the people. The failure of the Soviet Union, the English State under Cromwell, the French under The Terrors, Spain under the Inquisition, and most of Europe through the church controlled Middle Ages are all a product of the State, in its various guises, failing to provide a mechanism for the citizens to decide what constitutes justice. Most States provide a major legal mechanism for the resolution of conflicts -- courts, dueling, tribal councils, etc. The formal mechanisms are important for justice -- so that more egregious violators of the laws and rules can be punished publicly to show support for those rules and laws. Primitive systems such as tribal councils and other small group dynamics allow for direct input from the people. This prevents despotism, because the cheif or lord or baron must respond to the council, and ignores them at his peril. Richard III, Napoleon, et al., all eventually felt the wrath of the people in one shape or form. Systems that fail to provide the people justice will either eventually collapse through revolution, or because they are ignored by the people. Only those that use overwhelming force can afford to be unjust. The Soviet Union, Iran, Iraq and China are near perfect examples of states that do not (or did not, in the case of the Soviets) provide justice in the eyes of the people. Each uses force to secure the right of the State over the people -- Sharia in Iran, the will of the Dictator in Iraq, and the survival of the Politburo in the USSR and China. The Soviet Union fell when the need of the people for justice overwhelmed the ability of the state to respond and crush the demands for justice. Overnight, the system began to change. Russia, while no paradise of liberty, is in a position to respond more efficiently to the needs of the people for justice. The United States secures the rights of the people to decide what constitutes justice -- through the jury system, to start with. Through the legislative system, through the Federal system, and so, each step in the US contitution passes the power to decide what is justice to the people. Social as well as legal justice cna be addressed at the ballot box, either by voting for representatives or through referenda. Even with this responsiveness, the US has reached points where the changing needs of the people accelerated and the system could not keep up. The riots over the drafts of the 1860s and 1960s, riots in LA in the early 90s, are all signs that the public perception of justice has not been served. The system eventually responded, through legislation, by selective prosecution, and through efforts of various factions to come to a settlement. This is why the Anglo-derived systems of justice survive. They respond. Representative democracy will eventually come to overtake the whole globe, because it is the only system that responds to the people, and the absence of response is what eventually causes all dictators to fall.