Written by David Starr   

The Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary & Thesaurus (2006) contains six brief entities on the meaning of democracy. Among them are: “government by the people”; “rule of the majority”; and “the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions and privileges.” And from there more details emerge from various sources.

Athens, Greece has long been regarded as “the birthplace of democracy.” But scholars have also delved into some evidence indicating that democratic, or democratic-like systems could very well have existed way before the Athens’ version. Raul Manglapus, former lawyer, Philippine senator and foreign secretary, asserts that democratic concepts have existed as early as 2500 BC (Perhaps earlier: 4000 BC.) He also asserts that, “…the search for [for democracy] must begin in the East, not the West, for it is in the East that early, original egalitarian societies first developed hierarches and blossomed into mature civilizations.” He cites, specifically, “Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere.” (“Mesopotamia: Earliest Formal Democracies,” [12/2004], by Manglapus; Asia Pacific Report 66.)

Studies of Mesopotamian societies derived from various Sumerian records have shown what can be called, “primitive democracies.” (“Primitive Democracies in Ancient Mesopotamia,” [1993] by T. Jacobsen; Journal of Near Eastern Studies.) But there are more serious assertions of democratic concepts that evolved in Ancient India, having assemblies with full authority despite a monarch. (“The First Democracies: Early Popular Government Outside of Athens,” [1997] by E.W. Robinson.) There have been questions of whether Ancient Egypt had any democratic concepts; but there’s just as many rebuttals, characterizing it as a theocracy. (“The Many and the Happy Few,” [6/2012]; http://maat.sofiatopia.org/info2.htm)

The Athens version is known well enough, but its’ origins resulted from earlier class conflicts between a powerful aristocracy and most within the common population. Solon, an Athenian-and a lawmaker among other professions-became the sole mediator working out a system satisfying both sides: A formal assembly with full authority; and elected officials. (“Origin of Democracy in Ancient Greece,” [2007] by K.A. Raaflaub, etc.) But only male Athenian citizens could vote, and not immigrants, slaves and women. Sparta may have had a largely, limited democracy, with an oligarchy. (“Democracy: The Unfinished Journey,” [1994] by J. Dunn.) Only males over 60 yrs. old could vote; even with that, candidates were usually picked from the elite.

Ancient Rome is described more as a republic than a democracy. While Greece was a major influence on the republic/empire, Rome’s governmental structure in turn has more influenced today’s versions. (“The Early History of Rome: Books I-V of the history of Rome from its Foundations,” [2002] by De Selinourt Livy, etc.) In Medieval Europe, Church/State, monarchical, and feudal power dominated, but “guild democracies” nevertheless existed. (“Burnt Njal’s Saga,” [1960]; Magnus Magnusson, translator; introduction.)

In the Americas before the arrival of European colonialism, indigenous peoples probably had their own models of democracy. Native American tribes/federations like the Iroquois may have developed concepts as early as 1000 AD. Further south in the Americas, the Aztecs also had their own concepts as well with elected officials. (“How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World,” [1988] by J. Weatherford.)

In Medieval Europe, gradual, but inevitable, changes were happening where Church/State, monarchial, and feudal dominance were challenged by evolving intellectual thought, comprising, e.g., the Renaissance, early science, and subsequently the Age of Enlightenment. The Magna Carta (1215), was drafted by Archbishop Stephen Langton-with help from a baronial rebellion-to curb the abuses of King John, even though feudalism, etc. continued.

In 1791, Haiti became a republic where the slaves themselves abolished slavery. In earlier years before this event, there were 13 colonies in North America which united as a republic, after bloody battles against the British Empire. Thus, of course, the United States was born. From there the U.S. Constitution, and afterward the Bill of Rights were established. Across the Atlantic the French Revolution erupted in 1789 establishing the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. But after, the Terror also erupted, with sometimes overzealous persecutions and executions.

Elsewhere, other nations with varying concepts of democracy were born as well, adapting, e.g. universal suffrage. (“The United States Constitution and the Iroquois League,” [1990] by E. Tooker; “Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,” by Norman Davies; Polish Liberal Thought Before 1918,” by Macciej Janowski; “Europe: A History,” [1996] by Norman Davies; French National Assembly, 1848.)

The 20th century saw democratic concepts spread worldwide: Again in France; Germany (Before the Third Reich), Finland, etc. There was also a bourgeois form in February 1917 in Russia. Later, in Russia, in that same year, the 1917 October Revolution occurred in an attempt to establish a more direct form of democratic concepts prioritizing socialism. Unfortunately in later years, a deformed version was imposed thanks to Stalinism. In later years, revolutions occurred in the “Third World” involving socialism, despite whatever degree of Stalinism. Decolonization also succeeded in the “Third World” with nations gaining official independence, although sometimes not practiced literally. Tyrants also emerged, especially in the “Third World,” and, e.g., in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany.

The Cold War ended in 1989 with the dissolving of the “Communist bloc.” The legacy of Stalinism was probably the biggest factor, although it promoted, at least in name, communist ideas, etc. Today, the world has become less B/W and more shades of gray; still with examples of protests, uprisings, etc. comprising varying degrees of democratic concepts.

There have been various interpretations of democracy from well-known historical figures, as follows (Sources: About.com, Notable Quotes, Brainy Quote, Thinkexist.com, Constitutionfacts.com, www.marxists.org, U.S.HistorySite.com. While quotes are attributed to the appropriate sources; certain ones may be alleged.):

Aristotle (student of Plato):

“Even when laws are written down, they not always to remain unaltered.”

“He who is unable to live in a society, or has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or god.”

“If liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will best be attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.”

“Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.”

Plato:

“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.”

“Democracy…is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.”

“Democracy passes into despotism.”

Mahatma Gandhi:

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?”

Thomas Jefferson:

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

George Washington:

[B]e honest and just ourselves, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved. If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords soon be converted into reap hooks…”

“Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.”

John Adams:

Democracy…while it lasts is more bloody than either [aristocracy or monarchy]. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

Benjamin Franklin:

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”

Adam Smith:

“Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.”

Jawaharlal Nehru:

“Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.”

Abraham Lincoln:

“Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”

Kung Fu-Tzu (Confucius):

“He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north pole star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.”

Lao Tzu:

“Be the chief but never the lord.”

Aldous Huxley:

“A democracy which makes or even prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic.”

Alexis de Tocqueville:

“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.”

Maximilien Robespierre:

Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; It is not a law at all.”

“Any institution which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible is evil.”

H.L. Mencken:

“Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed and are right.”

“As a democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by downright moron.”

“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.”

Helen Keller:

“Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.”

Oscar Wilde:

“Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.”

Winston Churchill:

“The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”

Albert Einstein:

“The revolution introduced me to art, and in turn, art introduced me to the revolution.”

Karl Marx:

“Democracy is the road to socialism.”

Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt:

“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy is education.”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”

Vladimir Lenin:

“Democracy is indispensable to socialism.”

“Democracy is a form of the state, it represents, on the one hand, the organized, systematic use of force against persons; but on the other hand, it signifies the formal recognition of equality of citizens, the equal right of all to determine the structure of, and to administer, the state.”

“So long as the state exists there is no freedom. When there is freedom, there will be no state.”

Leon Trotsky:

“Socialism needs democracy like the human body needs oxygen.”

“The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the ends.”

Josef Stalin:

“It’s not the voting that’s democracy; it’s the counting.”

Mao Zedong:

“The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.”

“A proper measure of democracy should be put into effect in the army, chiefly by abolishing the feudal practice of bullying and beating and by having officers and men share weal and woe.”

Chou En Lai:

“In regards to the ownership of the means of production, it will take a long historical period, of one hundred years, or several hundred years, to settle the question of ‘who will win’ – socialism or capitalism.”

Mikhail Gorbachev:

“In October 1917, we parted with the old world, rejecting it once and for all. We are moving toward a new world, a world of communism. We never turn off that road.”

Ronald Reagan:

“Democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government.”

“Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.”

Richard Nixon:

“When the president does it, that means that it’s not illegal.”

“I am not a crook.”

“I brought myself down, I impeached myself by resigning.”

Isaac Asimov:

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”

Howard Zinn:

“Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.”

Martin Luther King Jr.:

“The greatest purveyor of violence in the world: My own government, I cannot stay silent.”

George W. Bush:

“America has never been an empire. We may be the only great power that had the chance, and refused-preferring greatness to power and justice to glory."

“A dictatorship would be a whole lot easier…so long as I’m the dictator.”

Michael Parenti:

“The enormous gap between what U.S. leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments of the dominant political mythology.”

Barack Obama:

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

“If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists-to protect and promote their common welfare-all else is lost."