"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...
