The 'history of
democracy' traces back from its origins in
ancient world to its re-emergence and rise from the
17th century to the present day.
Origins
Ancient Mesopotamia
The
Sumerian city states of
Mesopotamia (
Iraq) are believed to have had some form of democratic setup initially.
[1] They became
monarchies over time, although some limits on the
king's power were often retained.
Like
Greece 2,000 years later, Sumer (''Kengir'' in
Sumerian) in southern Mesopotamia was a culture that arose among many independent city-states which only much later were briefly unified, and then dominated by outside empires. In a pattern repeated in some Greek city-states and in
Rome, many Sumerian city-states are believed to have started with a form of democracy, but elected dictators in times of war that later kept power to become permanent monarchies.
[2]
Sumerian records are much older than Greek and Roman ones and thus not as clear.
Raul Manglapus, author of ''Will of the People: Original Democracy in Non-Western Societies'', states:
This pattern is repeated to varying degrees in later Mesopotamian states, including
Ebla, which elected a "king" (roughly what we'd now call a
president) every seven years. Retired kings received a
pension from the state.
Ancient India
One of the earliest instances of civilizations with democracy was found in ancient
India, even during the times of the
Rigveda, probably the earliest
Indo-European literature and one of the most sacred books of the Hindus. The states mentioned are mostly monarchies, but with two democratic institutions called the ''Sabha'' and the ''Samiti''. The ''Sabha'' (lit., ''Assembly'' in Sanskrit) is widely interpreted to be the assembly of the elect or the important chieftains of the tribe, while the ''Samiti'' seems to be the gathering of all the men of the tribe, convened only for very special occasions. The ''Sabha'' and the ''Samiti'' kept check on the powers of the king, and were given a semi-divine status in the ''Rigveda'' as the "daughters of the Hindu deity
Prajapati"
[1]. The later epic
Ramayana seems to mention a ''Samiti'' summoned by King
Dasharatha of
Ayodhya for ratification of his son Prince
Ramachandra as the successor (
Book II, Canto II:80). Later, there were even many
republics in
ancient India, which were established sometime before the
6th century BC, and prior to the birth of
Gautama Buddha. These republics were known as
Maha Janapadas, and among these states,
Vaishali (in what is now
Bihar,
India) was the world's first republic. The democratic
Sangha,
Gana and
Panchayat systems were used in some of these republics; the Panchayat system is still used today in Indian villages. Later during the time of
Alexander the Great in the
4th century BC, the
Greeks wrote about the Sabarcae and Sambastai states in what is now
Pakistan and
Afghanistan, whose "form of government was democratic and not regal" according to Greek scholars at the time.
[3] Another example was
Gopala's rise to power by democratic
election in
Bengal, which was documented by the
Tibetan historian Taranath.
[4][5]
Ancient Greece
The speaker's platform in the
Pnyx, in Athens, the meeting place of the People of Athens.
Athens is among the first recorded and one of the most important Western democracies in ancient times; the word "democracy" (
Greek: δημοκρατία - "rule by the people") was invented by Athenians in order to define their system of government, around 508 BC, after the proposals of
Cleisthenes. In the next generation,
Ephialtes of Athens had a law passed severely limiting the powers of the Council of the
Areopagus, which deprived the Athenian nobility of their special powers;
Pericles was the greatest democratic leader, although he has been accused of running a
political machine.
Athenian democracy, was based on selection of officials by
lot, and decisions in other cases by
majority rule. The assembly of all male citizens in Athens voted on decisions directly (compare
direct democracy). Elected officials did not determine decisions — giving decision-making power to elected officials was considered by the ancient Athenians to take away the power of the people, effectively making the state an
oligarchy.
The Assembly twice voted the democratic constitution out of existence during the crisis at the end of the
Pelopponesian War; both votes were under manipulation and pressure (in 404 BC, the presence of an army of occupation); and democracy was recovered in less than a year in both cases.
When the Macedonians conquered Greece, they installed
Demetrius of Phalerum as ruler of Athens, for a longer period. Athens restored the forms of its ancient constitution in later antiquity; but the extent to which it was a democracy, and the extent to which it was a tourist exhibit, are debatable.
Roman Republic
Birth of the Republic
The traditional founding of
Rome was in 753 BC. The
Etruscans, early
Italian settlers comprised of city-states throughout central
Italy ruled Rome for over a century; the traditional dates are 616 BC for the accession of the first Etruscan King, Tarquinius Priscus, and 510 BC for the expulsion of the last king, Tarquinius Superbus. The king was expelled by a group of aristocrats led by Lucius Junius Brutus. The Tarquins were expelled from Rome, and a constitution devised, whereby power rested in the hands of the
Roman senate (the assembly of leading citizens), who delegated executive power in a pair of
consuls who were elected from among their number to serve for one year.
The founding of the Republic did not mark the end for Roman troubles, since the new constitution was not flawless and there remained powerful external enemies. Internally, one serious threat was internecine feuding of the leading families. Another was the struggle between the leading families(patricians) as a whole and the rest of the population, especially the plebeians. After years of conflicts the plebs forced the senate to pass a written series of laws (the Twelve Tables) which recognized certain rights and gave the plebs their own representatives, the
tribunes. By the 4th Century BC, the plebs were given the right to stand for consulship and other major offices of the state.
Rome became the ruler of a great
Mediterranean empire. The new provinces brought wealth to Italy, and fortunes were made through mineral concessions and enormous slave run estates. Slaves were imported to Italy and wealthy landowners soon began to buy up and displace the original peasant farmers. By the late 2nd Century this led to renewed conflict between the rich and poor and demands from the latter for reform of constitution. The background of social unease and the inability of the traditional republican constitutions to adapt to the needs of the growing empire led to the rise of a series of over-mighty generals, championing the cause of either the rich or the poor, in the last century BC.
Fall of the Republic
The beginning of the end of the Republic came when the brothers Gracchus challenged the traditional constitutional order in the 130s and 120s BC. Though members of the aristocracy themselves, they sought to parcel out public land to the dispossessed Italian peasant farmers. Other measures followed, but many senators feared the Gracchi's policy and both brothers met violent deaths. The next champion of the people was the great general
Gaius Marius, He departed from established practice by recruiting his soldiers not only from landed citizens but from landless citizens, including the growing urban
proletariat. These were people when the wars were over looked to their commander for a more permanent reward in the shape of land of their own. Thus the situation developed where commanders and their armies banded together in pursuit of political objectives, the commanders seeking power and the soldiers rewards.
The temporary ascendancy achieved by Marius was eclipsed by that of
Sulla in the 80s BC. Sulla marched on Rome after his command of the Roman invasion force that was to invade
Pontus was transferred to Sulla's rival Marius. Leaving Rome damaged and terrorized, Sulla retook command of the Eastern army and after placing loyal puppets to the consul he marched for the conquest of Pontus. When Sulla returned to Rome, there was opposition to his rule by those loyal to Marius and his followers. Sulla, with the aid of a young
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) and
Marcus Licinius Crassus, quelled the political opposition and had himself made dictator of Rome. Sulla was a staunch proponent of aristocratic privilege, and his short-lived monarchy saw the repeal of pro-popular legislation and condemnation, usually without trial, of thousands of his enemies to violent deaths and exile.
After Sulla's death, democracy was more or less restored under Pompey the Great. Despite his popularity he was faced with two astute political opponents: the immensely wealthy Crassus and
Julius Caesar. Rather than coming to blows, the three men reached a political accommodation now known as the
First Triumvirate. Caesar was awarded governor of two Gallic provinces (what is now modern day France). He embarked on a campaign of conquest, the
Gallic War, which resulted in a huge accession of new territory and vast wealth not to mention an extremely battle hardened army after 8 years of fighting the Gauls. In 50 BC Caesar was recalled to Rome to disband his legions and was put on trial for his
war crimes. Caesar, not able to accept this insult after his fantastic conquest, crossed the Rubicon with his loyal
Roman legions in 49 BC. Caesar was considered an enemy and traitor of Rome, and he was now matched against the Senate, led by Pompey the Great. This led to a violent Civil War between Caesar and the Republic. The senators and Pompey were no match for Caesar and his veteran legions and this culminated in the
Battle of Pharsalus, where Caesar, although outnumbered, destroyed Pompey's legions. Pompey, who had fled to Egypt, was murdered and beheaded.
Finally, Caesar took supreme power and was appointed Dictator for life over the Roman Republic. Caesar's career was cut short by his assassination at Rome in 44 BC by a group of Senators including
Marcus Junius Brutus, the descendant of the Brutus who expelled the Etruscan King four and half centuries before.
After Caesar's assassination, his friend and chief lieutenant,
Marcus Antonius, seized the last will of Caesar and using it in an inflammatory speech against the murderers, incited the mob against them. The murderers panicked and fled to Greece. In Caesar's will, his grand-nephew
Octavianus who also was the adopted son of Caesar, was named as his political heir. Octavian returned from
Apollonia (where he and his friends
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and
Gaius Maecenas had been studying and helping in the gathering of the Macedonian legions for the planned invasion of Parthia) and raised a small army from among Caesar's veterans. After some initial disagreements, Antony, Octavian, and Antony's ally
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, formed the
Second Triumvirate. Their combined strength gave the triumvirs absolute power. In
42 BC, they followed the assassins into Greece, and mostly because of the generalship of Antony, defeated them at the
Battle of Philippi on
23 October. To pay for about forty legions that were engaged by the triumvirate for this purpose,
proscriptions were declared against about 300 senators and 2000 equites, including
Cicero, who was killed at his villa. After the victory, about 22 of the largest Italian cities suffered confiscations to provide land for the veterans.
In
40 BC, Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus negotiated the
Pact of Brundisium. Antony received all the richer provinces in the east, namely
Achaea,
Macedonia and
Epirus (roughly modern
Greece),
Bithynia,
Pontus and
Asia (roughly modern
Turkey),
Syria,
Cyprus and
Cyrenaica and he was very close to
Ptolemaic Egypt, then the richest state of all. Octavian on the other hand received the Roman provinces of the west:
Italia (modern
Italy),
Gaul (modern
France),
Gallia Belgica (parts of modern
Belgium, the
Netherlands and
Luxembourg), and
Hispania (modern
Spain and
Portugal), these territories were poorer but traditionally the better recruiting grounds; and Lepidus was given the minor province of
Africa (modern
Tunisia) to govern. Henceforth, the contest for supreme power would be between Antony and Octavian.
In the west, Octavian and Lepidus had first to deal with
Sextus Pompeius, the surviving son of Pompey, who had taken control of Sicily and was running pirate operations in the whole of the Mediterranean, endangering the flow of the crucial Egyptian grain to Rome. In
36 BC, Lepidus, while besieging Sextus forces in Sicily, ignored Octavian's orders that no surrender would be allowed. Octavian then bribed the legions of Lepidus, and they deserted to him. This stripped Lepidus of all his remaining military and political power.
Antony, in the east, was waging war against the Parthians. His campaign was not as successful as he would have hoped, though far more successful than Crassus. He took up an amorous relationship with Cleopatra, who gave birth to three children by him. In
34 BC, at the
Donations of Alexandria, Antony "gave away" much of the eastern half of the empire to his children by Cleopatra. In Rome, this donation, the divorce of
Octavia Minor and the affair with Cleopatra, and the seized
testament of Antony (in which he famously asked to be buried in his beloved Alexandria) was used by Octavian in a vicious
propaganda war accusing Antony of "going native", of being completely in the thrall of Cleopatra and of deserting the cause of Rome. He was careful not to attack Antony directly, for Antony was still quite popular in Rome; instead, the entire blame was placed on Cleopatra.
In
31 BC war finally broke out. Approximately 200 senators, one-third of the Senate, abandoned Octavian to support Antony and Cleopatra. The final confrontation of the Roman Republic occurred on
2 September 31 BC, at the naval
Battle of Actium where the fleet of Octavian under the command of
Agrippa routed the combined fleet of Antony and Cleopatra; the two lovers fled to Egypt. After his victory, Octavian skillfully used propaganda, negotiation, and bribery to bring Antony's legions in Greece, Asia Minor, and Cyrenaica to his side.
Octavian continued on his march around the Mediterranean towards Egypt, receiving the submission of local kings and Roman governors along the way. He finally reached Egypt in
30 BC, but before Octavian could capture him, Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra did the same within a few days.
The period of civil wars were finally over. Thereafter, there was no one left in the Roman Republic who wanted, or could stand against Octavian, as the adopted son of Caesar moved to take absolute control. He designated governors loyal to him to the half dozen "frontier" provinces, where the majority of the legions were situated, thus, at a stroke, giving him command of enough legions to ensure that no single governor could try to overthrow him. He also reorganized the Senate, purging it of unreliable or dangerous members, and "refilled it" with his supporters from the provinces and outside the Roman aristocracy, men who could be counted on to follow his lead. However, he left the majority of Republican institutions apparently intact, albeit feeble. Consuls continued to be elected, tribunes of the plebeians continued to offer legislation, and debate still resounded through the
Roman Curia. However it was Octavian who influenced everything and ultimately, controlled the final decisions, and had the legions to back it up, if necessary.
The Roman Senate and the Roman citizens, tired of the never-ending civil wars and unrest, were willing to toss aside the incompetent and unstable rule of the Senate and the popular assemblies in exchange for the iron will of one man who might set Rome back in order. By
27 BC the transition, though subtle and disguised, was made complete. In that year, Octavian offered back all his extraordinary powers to the Senate, and in a carefully staged way, the Senate refused and in fact titled Octavian ''
Augustus'' — "the revered one". He was always careful to avoid the title of ''rex'' — "king", and instead took on the titles of ''princeps'' — "first citizen" and ''
imperator'', a title given by Roman troops to their victorious commanders. All these titles, alongside the name of "Caesar", were used by all
Roman Emperors and still survive slightly changed to this date.
Prince derives from "Princeps" and
Emperor from "Imperator", Caesar became "
Kaiser" (
German) and "
Czar" (
Russian). The
Roman Empire had been born.
Once Octavian named
Tiberius as his heir, it was clear to everyone that even the hope of a restored Republic was dead. Most likely, by the time Augustus died, no one was old enough to know a time before an Emperor ruled Rome. The Roman Republic had been changed into a
despotic régime, which, underneath a competent and strong Emperor, could achieve military supremacy, economic prosperity, and a genuine peace, but under a weak or incompetent one saw its glory tarnished by cruelty, military defeats, revolts, and civil war. The Roman Empire was eventually divided between the
Western Roman Empire which fell in
476 AD and the
Eastern Roman Empire (also called the Byzantine Empire) which lasted until the
fall of Constantinople in
1453 AD.
Local popular institutions
Most of the procedures used by modern democracies are very old. Almost all cultures have at some time had their new leaders approved, or at least accepted, by the people; and have changed the laws only after consultation with the assembly of the people or their leaders. Such institutions existed since before the
Iliad or the
Odyssey, and modern democracies are often derived or inspired by them, or what remained of them. Nevertheless, the direct result of these institutions was not always a democracy. It was often a narrow
oligarchy, as in
Venice, or even an absolute
monarchy, as in
Florence.
These early institutions include:
★ The
Panchayats in India
★ The
collegia of the Roman period: associations of various social, economic, religious, funerary and even sportive natures elected officers yearly, often directly modelled on the
Senate of Rome.
★ The
Christian Church well into the 6th Century had its
bishops elected by popular acclaim.
★ The
Pope was elected by a
college of cardinals.
★ Medieval
guilds of economic, social and religious natures elected officers for yearly terms.
★ The
German tribal system described by
Tacitus in his
Germania.
★ The
Frankish custom of the
Marzfeld or "March field".
[6]
★ The
Althing, the parliament of the
Icelandic Commonwealth, was founded in
930. It consisted of the 39, later 55, ''goðar''; each owner of a ''goðarð''; and membership, which could in principle be lent or sold, was kept tight hold of by each hereditary ''goði''. Thus, for example, when
Burnt Njal's stepson wanted to enter it, Njal had to persuade the Althing to enlarge itself so a seat would be available. But as each independent farmer in the country could choose what goði represented him the system could be claimed as an early form of democracy. The Alþing has run nearly continuously to the present day. The Althing was preceded by less elaborate "
things" (assemblies) all over Northern Europe.
[7]
★ The ''
Thing of all Swedes'', which was held annually at
Uppsala in the end of February or early March. Like in Iceland, the assemblies were presided by the
lawspeaker, but the Swedish king functioned as a judge. A famous incident took place circa 1018, when King
Olof Skötkonung wanted to pursue the war against Norway against the will of the people.
Þorgnýr the Lawspeaker reminded the king in a long speech that the power resided with the Swedish people and not with the king. When the king heard the din of swords beating the shields in support of Þorgnýr's speech, he gave in.
Adam of Bremen wrote that the people used to obey the king only when they thought his suggestions seemed better, although in war his power was absolute.
★ The ''
túatha'' system in
early medieval Ireland. Landowners and the masters of a profession or craft were members of a local assembly, known as a ''túath''. Each ''túath'' met in annual assembly which approved all common policies, declared war or peace on other ''tuatha'', and accepted the election of a new "king"; normally during the old king's lifetime, as a
tanist. The new king had to be descended within four generations from a previous king, so this usually became, in practice, a hereditary kingship; although some kingships alternated between lines of cousins. About 80 to 100 ''túatha'' coexisted at any time throughout Ireland. Each ''túath'' controlled a more or less compact area of land which it could pretty much defend from cattle-raids, and this was divided among its members.
★ The
city-states of
medieval Italy, of which
Venice and
Florence were the most successful, and similar city-states in
Switzerland,
Flanders and the
Hanseatic league. These were often closer to an oligarchy than a democracy in practice, and were, in any case, not nearly as democratic as the Athenian-influenced city-states of Ancient Greece (discussed in the above section), but they served as focal points for early modern democracy.
★
Veche,
Wiec - popular assemblies in Slavic countries. In
Poland wiece have developed in 1182 into
Sejm - Polish parliament. The veche was the highest
legislature and
judicial authority in the republics of
Novgorod until 1478 and
Pskov until 1510.
★ Rise of parliamentary bodies in other European countries.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Historian
Jack Weatherford asserts that Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and others, got their ideas on democracy not from any Greek or Roman influence, but from the
Iroquois and other
indigenous peoples of the Americas, who practiced the type of democracy found in the
United States Constitution, through self-governing territories that were part of a larger whole. This democracy was founded between the years 1000-1450, and lasted several hundred years. He also states that American democracy was continually changed and improved by the influence of Native Americans throughout North America. For example, the right of women to vote started on the
American frontier, and moved eastward. In other words, Americans learned democracy from the Indigenous peoples of the North America.
The
Aztecs also practiced elections, and the elected officials elected a supreme speaker, but not a ruler.
[8]
Rise of democracy in modern national governments
Pre-Eighteenth century milestones
★ Rise of democratic
parliaments in
England and
Scotland:
Magna Carta (1215) limiting the authority of powerholders,
First elected parliament (1265), The
Levellers political movement,
English Civil War (1642-1651),
Habeas Corpus Act (1679),
English Bill of Rights and
Scottish Claim of Right (1689). See also: other documents listed at the
Constitution of the United Kingdom,
History of the parliament of the United Kingdom.
★
Simon de Montfort in 1265 introduced the idea that powerholders are responsible to an
electorate — (although only landowners were allowed to vote in the
1265 English election)
★
Renaissance humanism was a cultural movement in Europe beginning in central Italy (particularly Florence) in the last decades of the 14th century. It revived and refined the study of language (First Latin, and then the Greek language by mid-century), science, philosophy, art and poetry of classical antiquity. The "revival" was based on interpretations of Roman and Greek texts. Their emphasis on art and the senses marked a great change from the medieval values of humility, introspection, and passivity.
:The humanist philosophers looked for secular principles on which society could be organized, as opposed to the concentration of political power in the hands of the
Church. Prior to the Renaissance, religion had been the dominant force in politics for a thousand years.
:Humanists looked at ancient Greece and found the concept of democracy. In some cases they began to implement it (to a limited extent) in practice.
★ Rise of
Golden Liberty (Nobles' Democracy,
Rzeczpospolita Szlachecka) in the
Kingdom of Poland and
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth:
Nihil novi of 1505,
Pacta conventa and
King Henry's Articles (1573). See also:
Szlachta history and political privileges,
Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,
Organisation and politics of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
★
William Penn wrote his
Frame of Government of Pennsylvania in 1682. The document gave the colony a representative legislature and granted liberal freedoms to the colony's citizens.
Eighteenth and nineteenth century milestones
★
1755: The
Corsican republic led by
Pasquale Paoli with the
Corsican Constitution
★ 1760s-1790s Americans develop and apply concept of
Republicanism; basis of
American Revolution
★
★
Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776 (based on the English
Bill of Rights)
★
★
United States Constitution ratified in 1789 and the new
United States Bill of Rights
★ 1780s: development of
social movements identifying themselves with the term 'democracy': Political clashes between 'aristocrats' and 'democrats' in
Benelux countries changed the semi-negative meaning of the word 'democracy' in Europe, which was until then regarded as synonymous with
anarchy, into a much more positive opposite of 'aristocracy'.
★ From late 1770s: new
Constitutions and Bills explicitly describing and limiting the authority of powerholders, many based on the British
Bill of Rights (1689).
Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791 is widely recognized as the second oldest constitution in the world.
[9]
★ 1791: The Haitian Revolution, the first, and only, successful slave revolution, established a free republic.
★ 1789-1799: the
French Revolution
★ 1790s
First Party System in U.S. involves invention of locally-rooted political parties in the United States; networks of party newspapers; new canvassing techniques; use of caucus to select candidates; fixed party names; party loyalty; party platform (Jefferson 1799); peaceful transition between parties (1800)
★
★ Early
19th century: in Europe rise of
political parties competing for
votes.
★ Extension of political rights to various
social classes: elimination of wealth, property, sex, race and similar requirements for voting (''See also
universal suffrage'').
★ 1850s: introduction of the
secret ballot in Australia; 1872 in UK; 1892 in USA
The secret ballot
The notion of a secret ballot, where one is entitled to the privacy of their votes, is taken for granted by most today by virtue of the fact that it is simply considered the norm. However, this practice was highly controversial in the
19th century; it was widely argued that no man would want to keep his vote secret unless he was ashamed of it.
The two earliest systems used were the Victorian method and the South Australian method. Both were introduced in 1856 to voters in
Victoria and
South Australia. The Victorian method involved voters crossing out all the candidates whom he did not approve of. The South Australian method, which is more similar to what most democracies use today, had voters put a mark in the preferred candidate's corresponding box. The Victorian voting system also was not completely secret, as it was traceable by a special number.
20th century waves of democracy
The end of the
First World War was a temporary victory for democracy in Europe, as it was preserved in France and temporarily extended to Germany. Already in 1906 full modern democratic rights,
universal suffrage for all citizens was implemented constitutionally in
Finland as well as an
proportional representation,
open list system. Likewise, the
February Revolution in Russia in 1917 inaugurated a few months of liberal democracy under
Alexander Kerensky until
Lenin took over in October. The terrific economic impact of the
Great Depression hurt democratic forces in many countries. The 1930s became a decade of dictators in Europe and Latin America.
World War II was ultimately a victory for democracy in
Western Europe, where representative governments were established that reflected the general will of their citizens. However, many countries of
Central and
Eastern Europe became undemocratic Soviet
satellite states. In
Southern Europe, a number of
right-wing authoritarian dictatorships (most notably in
Spain and
Portugal) continued to exist.
Japan had moved towards democracy during the
Taishō period during the 1920s, but it was under effective military rule in the years before and during World War II. The country adopted a new constitution during the postwar
Allied occupation, with initial elections in 1946.
World War II also planted seeds of freedom outside Europe and Japan, as it weakened all the colonial powers while strengthening anticolonial sentiment worldwide. Many restive colonies/possessions were promised subsequent independence in exchange for their support for embattled colonial powers during the war. The United States, itself a former colony, flexed its new influence in support of the decolonization process, for example supporting prominent Arab nationalist Nasser during the Suez Crisis in 1956, often cited as the last gasp of European colonialism.
India became a democratic republic in 1950 upon achieving independence from Great Britain. Most of the former colonies were independent by 1965. The process of
decolonization created much political upheaval in Africa and parts of Asia, with some countries experiencing often rapid changes to and from democratic and other forms of government.
The
Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the
United States helped to protect the black vote, especially in the southern states.
New waves of democracy swept across Southern Europe in the 1970s and Central Europe in the late 1980s.
Much of
Eastern Europe, Latin America, East and Southeast Asia, and several Arab, central Asian and African states, and the not-yet-state that is the Palestinian Authority moved towards greater liberal democracy in the 1990s and 2000s.
An analysis by
Freedom House argues that there was not a single liberal democracy with
universal suffrage in the world in 1900, but that in 2000 120 of the world's 192 nations, or 62% were such democracies. They count 25 nations, or 19% of the world's nations with "restricted democratic practices" in 1900 and 16, or 8% of the world's nations today. They counted 19 constitutional monarchies in 1900, forming 14% of the world's nations, where a constitution limited the powers of the monarch, and with some power devolved to elected legislatures, and none in the present. Other nations had, and have, various forms of non-democratic rule.
[10] While the specifics may be open to debate (for example,
New Zealand actually enacted
universal suffrage in 1893, but is discounted due to a lack of complete sovereignty and certain restrictions on the
Māori vote), the numbers are indicative of the expansion of democracy during the twentieth century.
Contemporary trends
★
E-democracy
See also
Ideas
★
Direct democracy
★
Indirect democracy
★
Direct democracy (history in the United States)
★
Liberal democracy
★
List of types of democracy
★
Political philosophy
★
Political system
★
Representative democracy
★
Soviet democracy
★
Suffrage
★
Anarchy
Documents
★
Magna Carta of 1215
★
Corsican Constitution of 1755 (see
Pasquale Paoli)
★
Swedish Constitution of 1772
People
★
Edmund Burke
★
Cornelius Castoriadis
★
Anders Chydenius
★
Francis Fukuyama
★
Samuel P. Huntington
★
Thomas Jefferson
★
John Locke
★
Niccolò Machiavelli
★
James Madison
★
John Stuart Mill
★
John Stewart
★
Karl Marx
★
Simon de Montfort
★
Thomas Paine
★
Pasquale Paoli
★
Cola di Rienzi
★
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
★
Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
★
Amartya Sen
★
Alexis de Tocqueville
★
John Wilkes
Events
★
De Montfort's Parliament (1265) - first elected parliament in
England
Notes
1. Sumer and Akkad. The Sumerian City-States.
2. Jacob Klein. ''The Birth of Kingship: from Democracy to Monarchy in Sumer''.
3. Democracy in Ancient India. Steve Muhlberger, Associate Professor of History, Nipissing University.
4. ''History of Buddhism in India'', Translation: A. Shiefner.
5. Dr R. C. Majumdar, Dr A. D. Pusalkar (1964). ''The Age of Imperial Kanauj, History and Culture of Indian People'', p 45.
6. Gibbon ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapters XLIX, LII; pp. 1685,1857 Heritage Club edition (1946). For a recent view, see David Nicolle; ''Carolingian cavalryman, AD 768-987,'' p.45 ff. Intermediate sources tend to be colored by the "Free institutions of our Germanic ancestors" meme.
7. ''Burnt Njal's saga'', tr. Magnus Magnusson, introduction.
8. Indian givers: how the Indians of the Americas transformed the world, Weatherford, J. McIver, , , Fawcett Columbine, 1988,
9. John Markoff describes the advent of modern codified national constitutions as one of the milestones of democracy, and states that "The first European country to follow the U.S. example was Poland in 1791." John Markoff, ''Waves of Democracy'', 1996, ISBN 0-8039-9019-7, p.121.
10. Freedom House. 1999. "Democracy’s Century: A Survey of Global Political Change in the 20th Century."
References
★ Becker, Peter, Juergen Heideking and James A. Henretta, eds. ''Republicanism and Liberalism in America and the German States, 1750-1850.'' Cambridge University Press. (2002).
★ Robert Dahl, Ian Shapiro, and Jose Antonio Cheibub, eds, ''The Democracy Sourcebook'' MIT Press (2003)
★ Diamond, Larry and Marc Plattner, ''The Global Resurgence of Democracy'', 2nd edition Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996
★ Himes, Kenneth R. ''Catholic Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democracy'' (2002), about 19th and 20th century European Catholic thinkers, including anti-democrats like
Hillaire Belloc
★ Keane, John. ''Violence and Democracy'' (2004)
★ Keyssar, Alexander. ''The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States'' (2001)
★ Lijphart, Arend. ''Patterns of Democracy. Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries'' Yale University Press (1999)
★ Lipset, Seymour Martin. “Some Social Prerrequisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy”, American Political Science Review, (1959) 53 (1): 69-105. online at JSTOR
★ Macpherson, C. B. ''The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy.'' Oxford University Press (1977)
★
Markoff, John, ''Waves of Democracy'', 1996, ISBN 0-8039-9019-7
★
Muhlberger, Steve,
Phil Paine, ''Democracy's Place in World History'',
Journal of World History, 4: 23-45; 1993
★ Putnam, Robert. ''Making Democracy Work'' Princeton University Press. (1993)
★
Rothbard, Murray N., ''For a New Liberty'', 1973,
online, last accessed on 24 May, 2005
★
Vanhanen, Tatu, ''The Emergence of Democracy: A comparative study of 119 states, 1850-1979'' Helsinki, 1984
★ Weingast, Barry. “The Political Foundations of the Rule of Law and Democracy”, ''American Political Science Review,'' (1997) 91 (2): 245-263. online at JSTOR
★ Wood, Gordon S. '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1993), examines democratic dimensions of republicanism
★ Manglapus, Raul S. "Will of the People: Original Democracy in Non-Western Societies" (1987), democracy in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere dates to at least 2500 B.C, predating western democractic traditions.
Further reading
★
Charles Tilly, ''Contention and Democracy in Europe, 1650-2000'', Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-521-53713-4,
Google Print
External links
★
English elections 1265-1832 (only landowners were allowed to vote during this period)
★
History of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, 1216-2005
★
World History of Democracy
★
Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century
★
Waves of democracy often get reversed, Lipset reminds social scientists
★
Review of 'Waves of democracy' and 'Development and Social Change'
★
Democracy online - Records of democracy evolving in global politics
★
The site for the book Delusional Democracy - Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government and related articles by Joel S. Hirschhorn.
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