Democracy is literally the rule by the masses. Around the 5th century BCE, Democratica originated from the word demos people and Kratos rule. The term coin to describe the political systems being practice in a few Greek cities, including Athens.
Institutions Of Democracy
Since the times of the early Greeks the concept and implementation of democracy have experienced radical changes. These changes concern the current responses to questions 1 to 3. For many thousands of years, the type of group that was used to practice democracy such as the tribe or city-state, was not large enough to allow any form of democracy through assembly, also known as direct democracy.
At the end of the 18th century, direct democracy replaces by representative democracy as the nation-state grew. It was a change so vast that, from the viewpoint of a native of ancient Athens, the French and United States governments might not have been democratic in the first place. This was a change that led to an entirely novel approach to the question. Representative democracies will require the establishment of a system of political institutions that are completely different from the ones of previous democratic democracies.
A different and significant development has impacted the current responses to question. In the past, democratic organizations restricted the ability to take part in the political process to a small percentage of the population of adults-in fact at times, to a tiny fraction. Since the beginning of the 20th century the right to participate in government was expand to all adults. So, a modern-day democratic would be able to claim that Athens was not a democracy. Since it excluded large numbers of adults from the demos it was not an actual democracy. Even though democracy was first invented and utilized in Athens.
In spite of these and other significant modifications. It is still possible to recognize a significant amount of earlier political systems that included the concept of rule by the people. Even if they weren’t totally democratic according to modern standards.
Democracies From The Past
It is tempting to believe that democracy originated in a specific location and time-mostly. Described by the name of Greece in 500 BCE-the evidence suggests that democracy in the broad sense was in place in a variety of regions in the world prior to the fifth century.
It is possible that democratic governance in some form or other occurs naturally in any group with a well-bounded structure like a tribe in the event that the group is sufficiently devoid of outside influence in order to allow members to run their own affairs. Unlike tribal elders, most members believe they are qualified to participate in group decisions.
This theory has been confirmed by research on tribal societies that were not literate which has shown that there was a democratic system of government in many tribes throughout many thousands of years during which humans live as hunter-gatherers. Democracy, as it was practice in the early human era, may have been the ideal or natural political system.
After about 500 BCE conditions that were favorable to democracy resurfaced in a variety of areas, and small groups started to form popular governments. The primitive democracy, as one could claim, was re-invented in more sophisticated models. The most important developments took place in two regions in the Mediterranean, Greece and Rome.
Classical Greece
The classical timeframe corresponds to the 4th and 5th centuries BCE. The Greeks were not a country in the modern sense, but independent city-states with their own countryside. Citizens of Athens began establishing a popular government in 507 BCE under Cleisthenes. According to the Greeks, the type of political affiliation that is most suitable for democratic governance is the Polis. Read about the Peloponnesian War. Read about Athens’ devastation and the seemingly endless battle with Sparta at the time of 411 BCE.
A group called The Four Hundred gained control of Athens and established an oligarchy. In less than a year afterward, the Four Hundred were overthrown and democracy was restored. Ninety years later, in the year 321, Athens subjugated by its powerful neighbor in the northern part of Macedonia. This neighbor brought in property conditions that effectively excluded Greeks of all classes from being part of the democratic process. In 146 BCE, what left in the form of Athenian democracy destroy at the hands of the conquering Romans.