History of democracy

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The history of democracy traces back from its origins in prehistoric times to its reemergance from the 17th century to the present day.

Contents

Origins

Prehistoric Democracies

The earliest forms of democracy may have originated from the bands and tribes of prehistoric times. These groups of people, related by blood, naturally assigned the oldest member in each group to be its leader. As groups of people became larger and larger, a method of selecting a ruler from among the elders of various family lines had to be developed. This process began to take on more and more of a religious nature and could become either more or less democratic. In particular, larger societies tended to be less democratic for the simple reason that technology for communication was extremely limited. For the largest societies, democracy was all but impossible because of the necessity of a strong central ruler to manage the complex economic, social, and military aspects associated with civilization. With the origin of writing, the historical record is likely to be more biased towards less democratic societies because of the advantages associated with a strong central government. Nevertheless the earlier forms of government may have survived for some time. The Iroquois Confederacy is a modern example of the type of tribal democracy that may have existed in the past.

Ancient Greece

Main article: Athenian democracy

Athens is the first recorded and the most important democracy in ancient times; the word "democracy" (Greek: δημοκρατία - "rule by the people") was invented by Athenians in order to define their system of government.

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. Democracy had (and for some people still has) the meaning of equality in decisions and of elections in decisions, not the election of persons charged to decide (see representative democracy). Few checks on or limits to the power of the assembly existed, with the notable exception of the graphe paranomon (also voted on by the assembly), which made it illegal to pass a law that was contrary to another.

One of the reasons why this system was feasible was because of the relatively small population of Athens, by modern standards — only 300,000 people. Additionally, there were severe restrictions that dictated who had the right to participate as a citizen, which excluded over half of the total population. Citizenship rights were limited strictly to male, adult, non-slave Athenians of citizen descent. Therefore, women, children, slaves, foreigners and resident aliens — groups that together made up a majority of the city's population — had no rights to participate in the assembly. On the other hand, modern democracy has its own limitations in comparison to the ancient model, as for most citizens participation is limited to voting, voting itself is usually limited to once every several years, voters merely get to choose their representatives in the legislative or executive branches (with the exception of occasional referendums), and it is those representatives, not the voters themselves, who have the power to decide in matters of state. Pay for political service was a democratic principle, though which forms of service were covered changed over time. This pay was always MacDonald's wages: enough to more or less cover what a poor citizen might otherwise have earned diring the time he carried out some political function.

During the golden age of classical Athens, in the 5th century BC, when it was hegemon of the Greek city-states, the Athenians encouraged democracy abroad. This led to the adoption of democratic or quasi-democratic forms of government in several of Athens' allies and dependent states. However, in the 5th century BC, the Peloponnesian War saw the Greek world divided between an alliance led by Athens and a rival coalition led by Sparta. The Spartans won and democracy was abolished in all the Greek city-states which had adopted it. The Athenians themselves restored their democracy in less than a year, but were no longer in a position to promote it abroad.

Hundreds of other Greek cities were at one time or other democratic, but information on how their systems worked is scanty. Many will have followed the Athenian lead. Aristotle in the discussions in his Politics of the different kinds of democracies speaks of systems where the people vote only on the election of officeholders, but have no direct say themselves either on legislation or executive decisions. This would seem to be a form of representative democracy. (Aristotle Politics 1318b21-2; 1274a15-18; 1281b32-4)

Later in the ancient world, the Roman republic elected its leaders and passed its laws by popular assemblies. However, since the system had been effectively gerrymandered in the interest of the rich and well-born, the Roman republic is usually not considered a democracy.

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 German tribal system described by Tacitus in his Germania.
  • The Frankish custom of the March Field.
  • 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. The Althing was preceded by less elaborate "things" (assemblies) all over Northern Europe.
  • 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 c 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 he made sense.
  • The tuatha system in early medieval Ireland. Landowners and the masters of a profession or craft were members of a local assembly, known as a tuath. The members of a tuath were of common descent, although outsiders could be adopted. Each tuath 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 tuatha coexisted at any time throughout Ireland. Each tuath 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.
  • Rise of parliamentary bodies in other European countries.

Rise of Democracy in Modern National Governments

Pre-Eighteenth century milestones

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.

Humanism was the antithesis of religion, and caused a lot of changes in the ideological climate of Europe. Humanism wanted to build a world for humans, not for gods.

The humanist philosophers looked for better ways to organise the society than letting the pope have all power and having the church in control of the society. Religion had been the dominant ideology for a thousand years.

They looked at ancient Greece and found the concept of democracy:

Eighteenth and nineteenth century milestones

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 were 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

  • Waves of democracy: rise after First World War, fall after Great Depression and during World War II. 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. However, global depression, prolonged by protectionist policies, helped lead to radical fascist movements in Spain, Italy, eventually culminating in World War II.

World War II was ultimately a victory for Democracy in Western Europe, allowing for representative governments in the former fascist nations that reflected the general will of their citizens. However, Eastern Europe fell under the oppression of Soviet totalitarianism.

Throughout the decades following WWII, democratic nations experimented with mixed economies that reflected the preferences of citizens in each nation. Citizens in communist countries, of course, had no such option. However, heavier socialistic systems proved to be ineffective and counterproductive, leading to high unemployment, low economic growth, and general malaise. In the 70's and 80's, most Western nations therefore istituted economic reforms that generally improved economic conditions and helped hasten the end of the Cold War.

The inherent inefficiences of communism, coupled with vigorous opposition from Ronald Reagan's conservative American administration, eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the liberation of millions in Russia and Eastern Europe. New democracies were instituted in these nations, with free elections and representative governments. Having suffered under the weight of oppressive and unworkable socialistic systems, most of these nations embraced free-market reforms, eventually leading to generally improved economic conditions. However, most also retained basic social services and programs, like those present in Western Europe and other democracies.

It should be noted that economic systems are largely distinct from political systems, and both socialism and capitalism are compatible with democratic systems. Most modern democratic societies, including the United States, possess elements of both, though free-market systems dominate in most, as well as in the major developing nations of India and China. What distinguishes democratic systems from non-democratic ones is that the voters are allowed to shape the nature of their economic system, whatever shape that system utlimately takes.


Main competitors:

monarchy (declined after 1918), fascism (declined after 1945), military dictatorship (declined after 1990), communist states (declined after 1991).

Freedom House claims that in 2000, 120 (62.5%) of the world's 192 nations were such democracies. They point out that no nation permitted women to vote in 1900, and therefore would not now count as a full democracy. (New Zealand enacted universal suffrage in 1893, but they count it as still a colony.) Their list of democracies includes some governments such as Nepal, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan which have since collapsed into autocracy or been overthrown either by non-violent protest or by revolution. [1]

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Contemporary trends

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See also

Ideas

Documents

People

Events

References

External links

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