They had no place in their scheme for merchants and traders, viewed as useful but unstable members of the polity who were not eligible for citizenship. . Extensive urbanization changed all that by making direct democracy impossible. Instead, institutions of representative government were created, based on the right of citizens to elect members of an assembly authorized to make decisions on their behalf. Under the growing impact of globalization, however, a paradigm shift is now needed. The old premises were, of course, never universally valid.
Nomadic communities based on animal husbandry are just as old as agricultural settlements.
They have always relied on primary relationships based on kinship to organize and manage their communities, and individualistic principles of representative government cannot easily be applied among them. Moreover, although agriculture has spread around the world, so has desertification, and large areas of the world's surface are now inhabitable only by nomads. In today's world, traditional nomadism has been vastly augmented by globalization. The number of quasi-nomads has hugely accelerated. In addition to the effects of life-style changes, we must recognize the gigantic impact of accelerated migrations.