Definitions

"Democracy: government by the people."

"Despotic: implies the arbitrary . . . exercise of absolute power."

The definitions looked simple enough, in Webster's dictionary. But translating a definition into action--even staged, cinematic action--was not so simple, as Encyclopedia Britannica Films discovered. When E.B.F. wanted to make educational movies on Democracy and Despotism, it took a panel of twelve scholarly advisers (headed by Yale's Harold Lasswell) 20 months and 100 conferences to agree. The scholars had to survey from Plato to Harry Truman before they came to terms.

Last week the results, two twelve-minute shorts, which will be shown to 500,000 junior-high and high-school students, were previewed in Manhattan.

The scholars finally agreed that democracy can be measured by two "signs" and two "conditions." The signs: shared power and shared respect. The conditions: economic balance (poverty leads to despotism) and enlightenment. One flaw in Webster's abstract definitions: areas of despotism can exist in a democracy, and he doesn't say so. The film shows such areas of despotism within U.S. democracy as the Ku Klux Klan, a resort accepting only a "selected" (Christian) clientele.

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