Where Nikita Khrushchev thundered, “Your children shall live under Socialism,” Xi does not. Unlike the USSR of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, Xi’s China does not appear to seek to impose its political system upon the nations with which it has deep trade and commercial ties such as Australia, Japan and South Korea. Also aligned with us are the king and crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and the monarchies of the Persian Gulf who might fairly be called not only monarchists but autocrats.Īre the king of Bahrain, the emir of Kuwait and the sultan of Oman members in good standing in America’s club of democracies? Our Arab allies and partners include President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, who came to power through a military coup that ousted an elected government. How, then, do we embrace as a NATO ally of 70 years the Republic of Turkey, which is ruled by the autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan?

“Look … your children or grandchildren are going to be doing their doctoral thesis on the issue of who succeeded: autocracy or democracy? Because that is what is at stake, not just with China.”īut is this really what the conflict between America and China for economic, military and strategic supremacy is about - a contest between two political systems? And does Xi Jinping see it that way?ĭoes Xi see himself as the global champion of “autocracy” or as the nationalist leader of the Chinese people and Mao’s successor as The Great Helmsman who heads the party that decides the destiny of the nation?Īnd are we Americans really the champions of the democracy camp in a great twilight struggle with “autocracy”? Thus did Biden frame the conflict between America and China in almost purely ideological terms. “It is clear, absolutely clear … that this is a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies. “He’s one of the guys, like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, who thinks that autocracy is the wave of the future - democracy can’t function in an ever-complex world. … He doesn’t have a democratic - with a small ‘d’ - bone in his body,” said Joe Biden in his first press conference as president, and then he ambled on: Nor does Biden’s faith in small “d” democracy appear to have been shared by the men who founded the United States as a “republic, if you can keep it.” They saw democracy not as some object of veneration but as a danger to be avoided. Infrastructure and communications (order, ideas and exchange) Tribute-taking ('Obedient subjects': Oxus, India, Nile, Babylon) The First Persian Empire (Achaemenids) (6th C BCE - 4th C BCE) Subjugation/ Exploitation/ Terror/Relocation Neo-Assyria (9th century BCE - 6th C BCE) Periods of De-Urbanization/De-Centralization Tilly's states: 'Coercion-wielding organizations that are distinct from households and kinship groups and exercise clear priority in some respects over all other organizations within substantial territories.'Ĭity-States/Territorial States: 3000 BCE-ca. Territorial States and Empires Ancient Socio-Political Scale

Map: Mauryan empire greatest extent (3rd C BCE) Image: Hellenic coin struck to commemorate Indus victory Image: Assyrian soldiers besieging and looting Chart: Trends in World's Largest State/Empire

Autocracy or democracy imperial glory