[Buddha-l] Sangha model for running a country? Possible?

[jkirk]

Basically, I think the sangha system is a sort of republican (res publica) system, very much like the early Greek democracy where the common people, not just the rich, has a chance to speak and change things.

Piya
===============
How can this be the case when any sangha one can observe is a hierarchy, where high clerics rule over low clerics, and the higher the cleric the more dana he gets and the greater the merit to the donor of the greater dana to the higher or highest clerics. 
Nothing "democratic" about this system at all, and I don't see how it can be compared to the "ideal" ancient Greek system of agora politics, either. 
Best, Joanna
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/private/buddha-l/attachments/20060830/741ddf1b/attachment.htm