Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
political roots of democracy in the united states
the rise of liberal democracy
political roots of democracy in the united states
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: political roots of democracy in the united states
Liberal democracy is prevalent in the West. This political arrangement guarantees the rights of a people in relation to their government. Many Westerners, unfortunately, cannot give a philosophical explanation and/or justification for it. Ultimately, an examination of liberal democracy will demonstrate that it rests on notions of human dignity, equality and happiness, which are not recent developments in philosophy, but have their origins in classical and scholastic thought. It is in said examination that one can reasonably conclude that liberal democracy while not the best system of government is certainly better than the alternatives.
Democracy is not a contemporary phenomenon. It did not originate here in North America. Rather, its practice began---more than 2,000 years ago---in Athens, a city-state, in the Greek Mediterranean. The philosophers Aristotle and Plato attested to that fact in their writings. It is in Plato’s Republic that one finds the earliest definition of democracy, which is briefly, “the rule of the governed.” Plato compares democracy to monarchy, or rule of the one, oligarchy, or rule of the elite, and lastly, timocracy, or rule by property owners. Interestingly enough, the Republic’s author believed the rule of a philosopher-king was preferable to that of the masses. The Politics, written by Aristotle, provided a very robust explanation and justification of democracy, which will be detailed later in this paper. Nevertheless, democracy is synonymous with popular sovereignty or the notion that all within a human community have a say in the matters that affect them all.
If one accepts democracy as a practice, the question is then begged what kind of an institution sustains it? This discussion---though ...
... middle of paper ...
...onal being. He possesses a faculty which allows him to create, imagine, strategize and the like. Such qualities are not found in other creatures. In addition, man is a social being. He does not live alone, but lives in relation or community with others, beginning his family and extending outward to the larger society. Man, some philosophers have argued, acts towards a certain teolos, ends, or purpose. Aristotle believed that man sought happiness and achieved it through virtuous living. “For if what was said in the Ethics is true,” Aristotle wrote in his Politics, “that the happy life is the life according to virtue lived without impediment, and that virtue is a mean, then the life which is in a mean, and in a mean attainable by every one must be the best.” This happiness is not found on one’s own, but rather in the life of the community, in relation with others.
The term “democracy”, as a word and an institution, is derived from Ancient Greece. A democracy, by definition, is a form of government in which people choose leaders by voting. The earliest example of this governmental structure can be traced back to pre-common era Athens under the Athenian leader Cleisthenes. One of Ancient Greece’s most notable foundations was the polis, or city-state. The city-states were independent communities, with Athens being one of the most prominent. Following the exile of an Athenian dictator, Cleisthenes first motion as the new leader of Athens was to introduce a system of political reforms which he dubbed “demokratia,” or “rule by the people.” Other Greek cities established their own democracies, mimicking that of Athens, but none were as successful or recorded as well as that of Athens. Although this rough-draft of democracy only survived for two-hundred years and is scrutinized by modern historians for some of its non-democratic practices, Cleisthenes’ invention was one of Ancient Greece’s most significant contributions to the world.
Before that can be established, I think a definition of democracy should be stated so that it may be called upon later in this essay. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, democracy is stated as "the principle of social equality and respect for the individual within a community" .
In making this argument this essay seeks to five things. Firstly, to define democracy within the contemporary context offering the key characteristics of a modern re...
The term democracy is ambiguous, but Abraham Lincoln (1863) defines it as the “government of the people, by the people and for the people.” This modern take of democracy should guarantee basic personal and political rights to every individual person, everywhere, every day. Josiah Ober (2007, p.4) points out that “the Greek word dêmokratia conjoins kratos, a term for ‘power’, and dêmos, a term for ‘the people’.” It therefore means ‘power of the people’. But the Athenians did not call it democracy at the time, “they called it ‘isonomia’ or “equality in law”, writes Bernard Randall (2004, p.86). The earliest forms of democracy were formed by the ancient Greeks around 510 B.C in Athens.
In the fifth-century BC, Athens emerged as one of the most advanced state or polis in all of Greece. This formation of Athenian ‘democracy’ holds the main principle that citizens should enjoy political equality in order to be free to rule and be ruled in turn. The word ‘democracy’ originates from the Greek words demos (meaning people) and kratos (meaning power) therefore demokratia means “the power of the people.” The famous funeral speech of Pericles states that “Our constitution is called democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people.” However, only citizens (free adult men of Athenian descent) could participate in political matters. Women and slaves held no political rights, although they were essential in order to free up time for the citizens to participate in the matters of the state. The development of Athenian democracy has been fundamental for the basis of modern political thinking, although many in modern society UK would be sceptical to call it a democracy. Plato and Aristotle in The Republic and The Politics respectively were critical of the Athenian democracy, by examining the culture and ideology present the limitations and possible downfalls of a democratic way of life. Within this essay I will outline these limitations and evaluate their validity.
Human history is pock-marked with innumerable wars and revolutions. The cause for most of the revolutions has been the choice of freedom. The opportunity to live a life without physical, mental or emotional restrictions has been and still is of supreme importance to man. This has resulted in the most widely followed discipline of political governance: Democracy.
The democracy has a literal essence as well as a deeply rooted understanding for the structure of governing the people in a satisfactory way. The term ‘Democracy’ originates from a Greek word, implying ‘rule of the people’. As its origins designate, it’s a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives, either directly or through elected representatives which seems more rational since they are the ones who had to live through it. Daniel Hannan said in his article that Abraham Lincoln said “…government of the people, by the people, for the people…”. Providing the people with the rights to vot...
Humankind always has struggled to achieve the ideal balance between the needs and desires of the individual and those of the community as a whole needed to solve societal problems. The representative form of democracy seen today has been the most effective attempt at finding this balance and solving the problems different societies face. The influences that developed this form, a republic, are found in ancient Greece and Rome, and were further developed later on during the rise of Judeo-Christian ideals and during the Enlightenment.
Although the Greeks coined the word “democracy” – the words demos “people” and kratos “rule” conjoined together to mean, literally, “rule by the people” – there is speculation about weather or not certain other peoples, such as the Sumerians and the Indians, managed to engage in democratic methods of governance first. However, the history of democracy is not what is being discussed here; we are focusing on Plato’s criticism of democracy, particularly with regards to the Athenian model and his...
Democracy is robust, widely accepted and highly anticipated around the world. It is the triumphant form of government; dominantly used in Europe, North and South and America and becoming reformed and taking new roots in Africa and Asia. Although the term democracy is based on its Greek origin, demos kratos, meaning people rule, the term cannot be simply understood as such. Due to vast coverage, the adaptation of democracy has varied greatly, whether regionally, nationally, by state or through different branches of government. Perhaps this can be advantageous when the different categorizations listed above can use democracy to rule and suit themselves best, but other factors, such as globalization and neoliberalism, has caused the need for
Throughout history different types of instrumental regimes have been in tact so civilizations remained structured and cohesive. As humanity advanced, governments obligingly followed. Although there have been hiccups from the ancient times to modern day, one type of government, democracy, has proven to be the most effective and adaptive. As quoted by Winston Churchill, democracy is the best form of government that has existed. This is true because the heart of democracy is reliant, dependent, and thrives on the populaces desires; which gives them the ability for maintaining the right to choose, over time it adjusts and fixes itself to engulf the prominent troubling issues, and people have the right of electing the person they deem appropriate and can denounce them once they no longer appease them. In this paper, the benefits of democracy are outlined, compared to autocratic communism, and finally the flaws of democracy are illustrated.
Throughout this paper I plan to compare and contrast the ideas and philosophies of two of the greatest political thinkers of all time. Thucydides and Aristotle have separate opinions of the idea of democracy, originally created by Plato. However, these two have a positive assessment of this idea of majority rule of the people. My paper will provide each of their points of view. At the end I will determine, in my opinion, which of these two philosophers give a better case in favor of a democratic form of government, and give the reasons as to how I came to that conclusion.
Aristotle describes three types of life in his search for human flourishing: lives of gratification, politics, and contemplation. He contends that there is a single Idea of Good that all men seek, and he finds that happiness, or eudaimonia, best fits his criteria. Aristotle investigates the human purpose to find how happiness is best achieved, and finds that a life of activity and contemplation satisfies our purpose, achieving the most complete happiness in us. Aristotle is correct regarding the necessity of activity, but restricts the theory to only the life of study. We will reject this restriction, and instead allow any life of virtue and productivity to substitute for Aristotle’s life of study. One primary means of remaining active to achieve happiness includes loving friendships, which only happen to the virtuous. Thus human flourishing is living a life of virtue, activity, and productivity.
Happiness can be viewed as wealth, honour, pleasure, or virtue. Aristotle believes that wealth is not happiness, because wealth is just an economic value, but can be used to gain some happiness; wealth is a means to further ends. The good life, according to Aristotle, is an end in itself. Similar to wealth, honour is not happiness because honour emphases on the individuals who honour in comparison to the honouree. Honour is external, but happiness is not. It has to do with how people perceive one another; the good life is intrinsic to the...
The foundation of the modern political system was laid in the times when the world was strangled in slavery. In those moments, enlightened minds in Greek came up with the new system that was there to remain for the next thousands of years. This system, now known as democracy, is a form of government in which supreme power is vested to the people themselves. People have the right to elect their leaders directly or indirectly through a scheme of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. A new democratic government is usually established after every 4-5 years, and it is trusted with the responsibility to cater to the needs of all the people irrespective of the fact that they voted for them or not. Although the minorities may not be very pleased with the idea of democracy, however, a democratic government is certainly the best because it establishes social equality among people, reduces the conflicts in the state to a minimum, gives the chance to vote repeatedly, and creates patriotism.