Democracy
The great British statesman Winston Churchill once commented that democracy is
the worst form of government—except for all the others. Democracy is messy and
noisy, and order is difficult because in its basic idea, democracy gives a political voice
to everyone.
Democracy(fromdemos, or people) puts legislative decision making into the
hands of the people rather than a single individual or a noble class (Dahl, 1989;
Finley, 1973). The concept originated in ancient Greek city-states like Athens and
Sparta, in which all questions were put to a vote in an assembly, and every adult male
citizen had voting rights. City officials were selected by lottery (Hansen, 1999).
Pure democracy, or participatory democracy, with every person
getting one vote and the majority ruling, can work only in very small,
homogeneous units, like classrooms, families, communes, clubs, churches,
and small towns. If many people participate, it becomes impossible to
gather them all together for decision making. If the population becomes
heterogeneous, simple majority rule obliterates the needs of minorities.
In ancient Greece, women, children, foreigners, and slaves were excluded
from citizenship, so almost all of the voters at assemblies shared a socio-
economic status, language, belief system, and political agenda. If 10 per-
cent of the citizens had been Persian rather Greek, their opinions would
have vanished at every majority vote (Schumpeter, 1942).
The idea of democracy vanished when ancient Greece became part
of the Roman Empire (510–23 BCE). It reappeared during the Enlighten-
ment (1650–1800), when philosophers began to argue that all human
beings have natural rights, including the right to select their own politi-
cal leaders. Because nation-states were too big for participatory democ-
racy, they developed the theory of representative democracy,in which
citizens elect representatives to make the decisions for them. Representa-
tive democracy requires an educated citizenry and a free press. High-speed commu-
nication and transportation are also helpful; during the nineteenth century, it took
weeks to calculate the popular votes in presidential elections and months before every-
one in the country was informed of the results. However, there are often several steps
between the people and the decisions, such as an electoral college, to minimize chaos
while things get counted.
In 1900, there were only a few democracies
in the world, and none with universal suffrage
(voting for all adults, both men and women).
Today 70 percent of the world’s nations are
democracies, more than twice the percentage
just 20 years ago, and another 14 percent are
constitutional monarchies, all with universal
suffrage. The remaining 16 percent of the
world’s nations are a mixture of colonies, terri-
tories, absolute monarchies, communist states,
Islamic republics or other forms of theocracy
(rule by a religious group), military juntas, and
dictatorships, plus one ecclesiastical state (Vat-
ican City) and two states with no central gov-
ernment (Somalia, which is in chaos after 20
years of civil war; and Iraq, which is under
American occupation as of this writing).462 CHAPTER 14POLITICS AND GOVERNMENTOnThe Simpsons, whenever the town of
Springfield has a problem, the mayor calls
a town meeting. Everyone in town shows
up, and everyone, even Bart Simpson, gets
a vote. Springfield is really too big for
everyone to assemble in a small auditorium,
but the practice of town meetings, with
every citizen present and voting, has a long
history in New England, where small towns
still meet to plan budgets and educational
curricula, issue licenses, and pass local
laws.Didyouknow
?
The appeal of democracy as
a political ideal has become
nearly universal. The first
national election in Iraq in
2005.n