Every time I hear a modern politician emphasize the need to democratize the backwards nations on this planet I want to applaud and punch them in the face at the same time. This also applies to many political commentators and of course Bloggers, who love to pounce undemocratic countries and make them switch to the best political system invented yet by sheer willpower.
Although I am a staunch supporter of Democracy, I don’t believe in it as an instant solution to most countries problems. Democracy is an indicator for a modern and developed nation - but Democracy itself doesn’t transform backwards societies into shiny new ones.
Europe has not only invented many forms of government - but also tried and tested many of them. It’s a rich tradition paid for with many life’s and often centuries of terrible consequences. Most of all it took Europe nearly two thousand long years to transform itself into these shining beacons of enlightenment and peace as we know it today.
Aristotle’s Politics at work in Greece.
But the History of Democracy itself is a funny and ugly affair - with a huge whole between it’s beginning and final modern success.
Although it was so famously invented by the Greek nation states (most notably Athens) around 500 BC. But it was not the form of democracy we hold so dear today: woman, slaves and bloody foreigners were excluded from the process and of course regarded as second class citizens. Most important of all is that Demokratia was in the beginning successfully exported to some other nation states, but pretty fast abolished through other forms of government. Here is another good background article on Greek Democracy.
A similar development happened to the Roman Republic - which freed itself from it’s kings around the same time as the Greeks discussed in public meetings. The Roman Republic also had many elements of a modern state: a senate with lively debates, a citizenship, rule of law, votes and elected officials.
Greece lost it’s independence to the Romans around 150 BC - Rome itself turned slowly into a dictatorship after many bloody civil wars and chaotic rule by the Senate. This transformation found it’s great dictator with Julius Ceasar.
A republican Senate is boring - lets get ourselves a proper Dictator
Now comes the funny thing - since the end of the Greece and roman experiments not much was heard or seen of Democracy in Europe. Some tribal societies had smaller democratic elections or forms of community (like the Althing in Iceland - established 930 or the polish Veche), but no big democratic state or system emerged for a long time.
Also the idea of Democracy was more or less forgotten by European thinkers and statesmen. The medieval mind was more occupied with symbolism and religion then democracy or equal rights for everyone. Now it was time for feudalism and religion to bring blood, tears and ignorance. The common men lost any chance in participating in ‘big government’.
For almost 1500 years until the Renaissance nobody had any real interest in old Greek ideas and values. Rich merchants, the clergy and feudal ruler continued to suppress peasants and workers. Even the Reformation didn’t change much about this. Martin Luther supported the ruling class during several peasant uprisings. It was not yet time for social equality nor democratic rights for everyone.
May I have your head your Majesty?
But all was not lost - especially in England. The first Parliament (later split up into the House of Commons and House of Lords) was formed during the reign of King Henry III in the 13th century. Still not mass democracy, but a start to sharing powers and establishing the modern rule of law.
It was still a feudal affair, a political class system instead of a system of democratic equals. And still the Crown ruled supreme. It was a long and bitter process over many centuries and civil wars to change this.
Almost 500 years later Oliver Cromwell made the Parliament a permanent establishment instead of a ’seasonal affair’ created and disbanded by the Crown at will. Now the people reigned supreme instead of the Monarchy - but it took two bloody civil wars to cut of the monarch’s head (1649) and establish the Parliamentary System in England.
What say ye old wooden tooth?
The biggest step for European Democracy happened in … America and their fight for Independence from the British Empire (1775 - 1783). The American Revolution started with the impressive Declaration of Independence in the year 1776.
This great document was the ‘result’ of the European ‘Age of Enlightenment’ - a political, artistic and philosophical movement that created the mental cornerstones of our modern societies with it’s humanism, socialism, secular and democratic systems. But it was the achievement of young American society to build the first nation based on these ideas. It was much harder to transform the old and encrusted European societies - but it happened eventually.
Now we have to applaud the french people who finally got it right and started their first revolution of 1789, which lead finally to the Abolition of Feudalism.
The modern House of Commons from 1851.
It still took almost two hundred more years since Cromwell till Democracy was more firmly established in the UK by the Reform Act of 1867, which allowed more ‘normal’ men to vote instead of the privileged gentry and it also abolished so called rotten boroughs. Still no women were allowed to vote.
The real reason for the breakthrough of modern western Democracy was the Industrial Revolution. With the emergence of the working and middle class the old class system was finally abolished and replaced by new modern movements. Socialism, Feminism and Communism were triggered by the social consequences of the Industrial Revolution.
Say hello to a new political power - the industrial working class.
The miserable living and working conditions of workers in slums, child labor and the slow organization of Labor created the pressure for huge changes, like medical care, housing projects, education, equal rights and the vote for everyone. The new economy broke down many social barriers and also allowed a new upward mobility.
And finally the suffragette movement - started in the early 1800’s - established the right to vote for woman (1920 in the US and 1928 in the UK). Once again a slow process that took almost another hundred years to be globally accepted.
The new ‘mass societies’ also demanded better forms of representation and government - as well as accountability and social justice. The shock of the Soviet October Revolution finally convinced even the most hardened elites in Europe that mass democracy was the best way to go for the future.
Democracies have to be protected against the enemy from within
But modern Democracy faced two final test before it got the global stamp of approval: it had to fight to defend it’s values against Fascism and Communism before it was accepted as the best form of government. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Moussolini and Franco transformed their nations by popular support into terrible societies.
So it was a long and bloody road from the first forms of Democracy until our modern mass Democracies. To establish itself Democracy needs first the rule of law and a broad industrial society with a rule of law and separation of powers.
Without economic support to pay for education, medical care and a national infrastructure it won’t work. You also need a big and strong middle class and educated elites to develop a political landscape, start parties, run ministries, the judiciary system, an independent media, ‘neutral’ police and armed forces. Too many Democracies fell victim to military interventions ‘to save the country’.
We elect Allah as our Leader.
Equally important is a strong secular humanism within the society itself - the separation of Church and State. It took Europe centuries of war and millions of deaths to learn that lesson.
Many African or middle eastern countries lack many components I just mentioned and you can’t for example develop a strong economical base over night or an educated middle class to form a strong political landscape. The same is also still true for a few Asian countries, but they have picked up the basics much faster then many of their African and Arabic counterparts.
