This blog derives from a thread on Paganism and Christianity.

A discussion about Chritianity's impact on freedom and democracy arose and I made a statement that a political system arises from society's substructural elements.
The key threads are:

Originally Posted by motorbike
Thanks Beetle, but for me the political realm has always been an outcome of the interactions of the economic/social/cultural/intellectual spheres. the one element it does possess is...

I find the Cossacks the most enigmatic and most misunderstood peoples. They are not an ethnic or national group, although they could have become one. They were primary a lifestyle that became a military force that could have become a nation. However, the essence of their lifestyle - being a free man; and their geographical location - a 'no man's land - meant that they would never develop the social structures that would allow them to become a nation or a state. In time they fell under the power...