“California in the Twenty-First Century faces a question that would fascinate the classical and Enlightenment thinkers who influenced America’s founders,” you open the concluding section of your special report on democracy in the most coveted country’s most coveted state (“The People’s Will,” April 23, 2011). “Most of them stipulated that participatory democracies must be small,” you continue. “Their populations should be culturally homogeneous, and they must be virtuous.” Wise, this. Close to the report’s end you prophesy that lovers of democracy everywhere will pay attention to the current debate about California’s participatory democracy, “for it will provide lessons for everyone.” As for this lover of democracy, participatory or otherwise, the lessons are already perfectly clear. There are so few places in today’s world that are small, culturally homogeneous, and virtuous that they can be safely abstracted away. Quod erat demonstrandum.