Mr. Haskell
World History
19 September 2006
History of Democracy
Democracy was credited to the Greeks of the sixth century BC. Democracy means �rule by the people.� The Greeks system of democracy was by far the closest to true democracy than anyone else in history. When the democracy came into the United States they didn�t like the way the Athenians had direct rule by the people rule the government and so the U.S came up with 3 branches. The 3 branches where called the Executive branch, the Legislative branch, and the Judicial branch.
The Romans took some democratic ideas from the Greeks. The Greeks democracy was a representative democracy which used nobility in the senate and representatives to the commoners in the assembly. The Roman democracy was divided into two branches. Some philosophers of the time taught that all the governmental and political powers should come from the people.
Athens was once a monarchy, then an aristocracy, and then started to become a democracy. When Athens was using the aristocracy they grew in power and wealth. Farmers were forced to sell their land to nobles, which will help led up to democracy. The Athens democracy was very limited.
The Magna Carta opened a new door to the democratic system. King John was forced by nobles to sign the Magna Carta, also known as the �Great Charter�, and that helped create the English parliament. The petition of rights stated that the king could no longer tax without permission and the Bill of Rights allowed freedom of speech and banned cruel of unusual punishment.
The Declaration of Independence was the first step to democratic evolution. It evolved from being just a form of government to becoming one of the most widely used forms of governing on the planet. There were �no branches�, and then there were �two branches� of government, and then �3 branches� of government.
This impacted the western civilization by making it possible to vote and have the right to be free. The government helped make the laws. If there was no form of government and no laws existed, than there would be total chaos. The laws help control the chaos and it makes up a better place to live.
I think the Greeks and Romans made the most of the democracy and with both of they put together forms the democracy we use today. Greeks helped by getting the whole thing started and then having history do the rest.