Democracy

July 4th, 1775

America is not a democracy and never has been. America is whats called a Federal Constitutional Republic. A democracy is where the people govern the nation and that is not the case in America. A republic is where the rule of law governs the nation. But here in the US not only does the law govern us but it also governs the government. It limits their power. Federal just means that we have one central government which is the federal government and separate states that can make their own laws as long as they don't interfere with federal laws. For example, states cant make laws banning guns since its written in the constitution that we have the right to bear arms. The Constitutional part means that we have a constitution that is our law that we follow. We may have democratic values such as voting for presidents, governors, congressmen, etc, but once they are elected they make our decisions. However, if they make bad decisions and the country decides we dont like that elected official, we can impeach that person but its a very hard process.

In a way, yes. The Virginia House of Burgesses was an almost democracy-like type of government, and the colonists had many other ways of governing themselves in a democratic way. BUT, they still belonged to Britain, which was a monarchy at the time. It's obvious the colonies wanted a democracy, and since the king really didn't know, they pretty much set one up in a way.. == ==

It evolved over time. Both Britain and Sweden developed it independently and both obtained it around the same time.

In the case of the UK, the English monarchs had been slowly restrained by parliament (and before that, the nobility) since 1215 and King John's forced signing of the Magna Carta, and over the centuries the role of the King was decreased over and over again. Starting from 1295,we had parliament and the King used to put all his officials into parliament (via a peerage or by getting them elected) which essentially created the principle that all ministers in government had to be accountable to parliament.

So, as time went by, parliament asserted itself again and again, actively deposing King Richard II in 1399, until the 17th Century when the Kings we had imported from Scotland earlier that century (used to a more docile parliament) tried to rule without parliament - this started a civil war and eventually we cut off this King's head (King Charles I).

After about a decade of supposedly 'republican' rule (actually a dictatorship) we got King Charles I's son back to be King (King Charles II) and he knew his place. The King, at this point, formed policy and appointed ministers to carry out his decisions. After that King died, we got another one (King James II) who was quite frankly very authoritarian and Catholic to boot, so we invited William, Prince of Orange, to invade, although hardly any fighting took place - most of the army sided with William. So when King James II escaped, parliament declared that he had abdicated and gave the throne to King William III and Queen Mary II; protestants who would rule through parliament. That was the real beginning of the principle that parliament is sovereign, not the King.

Then, in the 18th Century, the succession fell to the Hanovers, a bunch of Germans who didn't speak good English and had little interest in domestic politics. So, that was when we got our first 'prime minister' (even if the name didn't get used until much later - his title was 'first lord of the treasury') - Sir Robert Walpole.

So now, the King isn't taking much interest in politics, government is delegated to the prime minister with only very vague thoughts on policy coming from the King (though they did do slightly more on foreign affairs). The prime minister still had to keep the King happy as well as parliament though.

The beginning of the end for any royal role in politics began with (believe it or not) the American Revolution. The King refused to sack the prime minister Lord North or let him resign even though he himself had admitted he was no good at winning the war; he was eventually forced to by parliament. And so began a fifty year period of increasing agitation with the unfair system of election (pretty much unchanged since 1429), corruption in parliament, and royal battles with parliament. In 1832, the Great Reform Act signalled the end of royal interference as parliament was now truly accountable to the people, and the prime minister had to keep parliament happy rather than keep the King happy because parliament could strip him of his position while the King couldn't without being forced to abdicate afterwards.

So, I suppose you could say it was principally created by the 25 Surety Barons who forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, Oliver Cromwell who was in charge when they cut off King Charles's head, King William III and Queen Mary II and the 513 MPs and 82 Lords who put him on the throne, King George I and our first prime minister Sir Robert Walpole, King George II and King George III, and finally Lord Grey who proposed the 1832 Reform Act.

Athenian citizens had had to install a tyrant to end exploitation by the upper class and govern for all classes. After 40 years of this, they wanted more control themselves so they expelled the tyrant, and replaced the attempted move by the aristocrats to regain power by establishing a citizen assembly to make laws. This eventually developed into a direct democracy where government was effected by vote in fortnightly assembly meetings.

America's brand of democracy is not easily exportable. The United States had to overcome many obstacles when the country was newly formed. Other countries which have been in existence for a long time are less likely to change the ways in which they know for the operation of their government system.

Industrial harmony helps in the economic growth by providing employment. But relating to the environment sector it does lead to dertimental effects like causing environmental pollution which inturn affects the life of both plants and animals.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison started the Democratic-Republican party. When the parties split the democratic side was led by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren.

Rome practiced a type of democracy called Representative Democracy, while Greece, Athens mainly. Practiced Direct democracy.

The differences being that Direct democracy has everyone vote on every thing that happens. As opposed to Representative Democracy where you vote for someone to vote for you. America uses a type of Representative Democracy.

I hope that helps

With all due respect

The Black Squirrel

A republican parliamentary democracy means that the power is held by an elected parlament who represents the people of that area.

It was a direct democracy, that is the citizen Assembly met every couple of weeks to make all decisions and pass laws. The citizens were susceptible to leaders good at oratory in influencing the Assembly, and the long term or side effects or self interest of actions promoted by the urgers (demagogues = people-leaders) were often overlooked. After being led into several disastrous decisions, the Assembly passed a law of 'deceiving the people' with the death penalty attached.

The people had limited confidence in the Council. Important actions often had a tag 'the generals will action it' - the generals were still elected from reliable people as the Council was selected by lot, and the citizens did not want to be led into battle by some donkey who was selected randomly by the lot machine - so they learnt from bitter experience to turn to the generals to implement non-military matters as well.

The city reverted to oligarchic control several times in time of crisis in order to get action without endless discussion and dissent. When it finally settled down the people became bored with it and attendance at the Assembly sharply declined, leading the Council to offer inducements to attend, and at one stage having slaves sweep across the agora with a chalked rope to drive the people there to the assembly to avoid being marked and identified as democratic slackers. The democratic discussion-decision system eventually degraded to a vote-only yes-or-no system on measures proposed by the Council.

Athens was a direct democracy where the male citizens controlled the activites of the cty-state, meeting every couple of weeks to make decisions. They were fairly easily led by demagogues (= leaders of the people) who brought forward plausible propositions which looked good to the people (until they learned better by later bitter experience, when they instituted a crime of 'Misleading the People with the death penalty attached).

A chief demagogue was Pericles who was overconfident of Athens' ability to use its walls to protect the city and port, and the navy to inflict damage on any attacking city and as well protect the import of food during a prolongued seige, and comtinue to collect the taxes it imposed on its empire to pay for all this.

The moderating conservative force of Thucydides son of Melesias and his party was lost when Pericles had him ostracised (banished from the city), so there was no coherent opposition to the opportunists bent on pushing too far the Peloponnesian League cities led by Sparta. The Assembly accepoted the urgings of Pericles and the ancompromising activists to vote f0r war, rather than the compromise for peace proposed by Sparta.

The term "Spoils System" refers to the practice of the winning politician giving government jobs and contracts to supportive associates, friends, and voters. Originates for the phrase "To the victor goes the spoils,".

Cuba continues to be under a repressive communist dictatorship. Cuba is not free.

it enables requirements definition, and drives the technical and fuctional credibility of a model or simulation.

Yes

Living from the early 7th to the late 6th century BCE, the ancient Athenian Solon is considered to be one of the central founders of Athenian democracy. For instance, against the tendency to focus power in the hands of a few wealthy citizens, Solon worked to put political power in the hands of citizen-groups and to ensure that all classes of society would be represented in the society's decisions and laws.

No, the US has a representative democracy.

It was the Greeks who created democracy. Athens developed into the first ever democracy. It came about through a three reforms over a period of 130 years which weakened the power of the ruling elite The origins of these reforms were the facts that the clans of the ruling elites at times clashed and this led to tyranny and that the elites often abused the poor. This eventually led to the concept of democracy, which to the Greeks it meant power to the people. Their democracy was different than us. It was direct. This means that people did not elect representatives. They voted on legislation themselves. The did so in the Assembly of the People, which was open to all male citizens. This assembly had four functions: it issued decrees, it legislated, it elected some officials and it tried political crimes. It was through the creation of these powers for this assembly that democracy was established.

Rome was never a democracy. During the monarchic period it was ruled by a king, during the republican period it was an oligarchy and during the period of rule by emperors the emperor was an absolute ruler. The middle and lower classes never had a substantial share in decision making. There was a democratic element. Three different types of popular assemblies elected the officers of state and voted on bills. However, the aristocracy and the wealthy entrepreneurial elite controlled politic via their control of the senate, the city's most powerful political body.

No, they did not. They favored liberty and freedom for all, protected by a Constitution of absolute government limits and lead by leaders who were elected, not coronated. The founding fathers limited the democratic process and who could vote to just land owners in the beginning. It was only later, through many years and many suffrage movements, that most other people got the right to vote. The real defect in the democratic system occurs when we confuse the procedure of democracy (only good for electing our leaders) with the idea of democracy as a system of government. The founders adopted the democratic system as a procedure to give themselves a Republic, which would ensure the preservation of liberty, freedom and the right to seek happiness.

The fact that he did not 'rule'. He promoted democracy, and his ascendance as First Citizen occurred by his ability to give a lead, select beneficial courses of action for Athens and its people, and his persuasive ability.

In the agora - the market place; for gossiping, in the perfume shops; for philosophic discussions, in the stoas, the verandas of major buildings; or just sitting down in the shade of olive trees.

First of all, we should note that only Athens and a few other city-states were ever democracies. The vast majority of Ancient Greece was ruled by monarchies or oligarchies and not by elections. However, in Athenian democracy, all of the citizens voted on policies, which made Athens a direct democracy.

No. Though machine politics played a role in elections involving Franklin Delano Roosevelt, there was no serious threat that a dictatorship would form during the Depression. The US lacked the machinery to allow a dictatorship to form - secret police forces, massive standing military forces, or a slave-labor economy.