Facts about Democracy
Aristotle contrasted rule by the many (democracy/polity), with rule by the few (oligarchy/aristocracy), and with rule by a single person (tyranny/monarchy or today autocracy).
Such consensus democracy has existed in local-level community groups in rural communist China.
Many lessons should have been learned from the past two hundred years of democracy.
The only form of democracy considered acceptable to many anarchists is direct democracy, which historically discriminates against minorities.
The next best form of government was aristocracy, understood as the government by the best, and finally democracy, the government by the people.
Modern democracy has benefited from the mass education of citizens, the free press, and most especially the Protestant Reformation, which encouraged self-restraint and public-mindedness and trained people in self-government.
Democracy in the modern world evolved in Britain and France and then spread to other nations.
One of the key values of French democracy which is also shared by socialism and communism is equality.
Libertarian socialists generally believe in direct democracy and Libertarian Marxists often believe in a consociational state that combines consensus democracy with representative democracy.
Democracy is the name given to a number of forms of government and procedures which have legitimacy because they have the consent of the people they govern.
The principles of French democracy were eagerly embraced by other idealistic revolutionaries throughout Europe.
Group selfishness is thus a greater threat to democracy than individual selfishness.
South Africa became a democracy, but with a franchise limited to white people.
The origin of the modern liberal democracy that has expanded so rapidly in the past century lies in the evolution of English political institutions.
One of the most significant influences on the development of democracy was Protestantism.
Democracy is also a peaceful way for a group of any size to settle arguments or make decisions.
The system gradually evolved, from Jeffersonian Democracy to Jacksonian Democracy and beyond.
Socialism, where the state economy is shaped by the government, has some forms that are based on democracy.
Many democratic socialists and social democrats believe in a form of welfare state and workplace democracy produced by legislation by a representative democracy.
Consensus democracy and deliberative democracy seek consensus among the people.
Switzerland is a direct democracy where new laws often need a referendum in order to be passed.
A significant further development of democracy occurred with the establishment of the United States.
The Republic of India is currently the largest liberal democracy in the world.
The hierarchical Roman Catholic Church supported absolute monarchy and was a powerful opponent of democracy and liberalism.
Democracy, when it developed on the continent of Europe, took a very different turn.
A second value in Anglo-American democracy is respect for tradition and custom as the source of the authority for morality and the law.
One impetus behind French democracy was the desire to seize the power of the state and use it to remodel society on a rationalistic basis.
The Athenian democracy developed in the Greek city-state of Athens (comprising the central city-state of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica).
Such city states, particularly on the Italian peninsula, often allowed greater freedom for science and the arts, and the Renaissance blossomed in this environment, helping to create conditions for the re-emergence of democracy.
The former Eastern bloc countries had some memory of liberal democracy and could reorganize more easily than Russia, which had been communist since 1917.
The officials of the democracy were elected by lot, except generals (strategoi) and financial officials, who were elected by the Assembly.
A much noted classical example would be the ancient Athenian democracy.
The rise of democracies in the twentieth century has come in successive "waves of democracy," variously resulting from wars, revolutions, decolonization, and economic circumstances.
The underlying values and culture that underpin Anglo-American democracy are, first, the value of the individual.
Certain ethnic tribes organized themselves using different forms of participatory democracy or consensus democracy.
Representative democracy involves the selection of the legislature and executive by a popular election.
The hierarchical Roman Catholic Church supported absolute monarchy and was a powerful opponent of democracy and liberalism.
Social democracy, democratic socialism, and the dictatorship of the proletariat are some examples of names applied to the ideal of a socialist democracy.
Athenian democracy developed around the fifth century BC in the Greek city-state (known as a polis) of Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica, and is the first known democracy in the world.
democracy definition. A system of government in which power is vested in the people, who rule either directly or through freely elected representatives. Note: Democratic institutions, such as parliaments, may exist in a monarchy.
For many Iraqis, those items remain as unattainable today as they were under Saddam Hussein. The simple truth is that Iraq as currently constituted can never be a stable democracy, and thus American warfighters sent there to shore up Maliki's faltering regime are likely to find themselves defending a dictatorship.Jun 20, 2014