The Origins Of Democratic Thinking

Dr Farrar argues that the development of political theory accompanied the growth of democracy at Athens in the fifth century BC. By analysing the writings of Protagoras, Thucydides and Democritus in the context of political developments and speculation about the universe, she reveals the existence of a distinctive approach to the characterisation of democratic order, and in doing so demonstrates the virtues of Thucydides' historical conception of politics.

"A balanced, high-quality analysis of the developing nature of Athenian political society and its relationship to 'democracy' as a timeless concept."—Mark Munn, author of The School of History

This volume provides a fresh perspective on current democratic theory and practice by recovering the rich evaluations of democracy in the history of political thought. Each author addresses a single thinker’s reflections on the virtues and defects of democracy and the relationship between democracy and other regimes. Together, these essays explore the tensions within the democratic way of life that arise from an attachment to equality, liberty, citizenship, law, and the divine. Above all, this work aims at recovering a more complex understanding of democracy, connecting the perennial questions of political philosophy to the perplexities and crises of modern democracy.

Discover the fascinating evolution of democracy from then until now - the influence of ancient figures, and the origins of today's political systems. Now more than ever, Democracy has become a compelling conversation topic. But have you ever wondered what has shaped the political systems that govern many societies today? Are you curious about the history of democracy? Or do you wonder how some of the democratic policies developed through the ages? Or maybe you wonder how democracies die? Many people might believe the start of democracy to be the establishment of the United States of America as it threw off the shackles of British rule. Some may even be familiar with the fact that those democratic ideals can be traced back to the teachings and practices of the ancient Greeks and Romans. But is that all there is to it? Studying history will help give you a better understanding of the origins of democracy, how it shaped our current laws and policies, and how democracy works now. Which begs the question: what does history tell us about democracy? And what does it tell us about democracy in the US now? Where did democracy start? How did it develop? What inspired and ignited an entire democratic system to govern societies? In order to understand today's democracy, we need to start from its earliest beginnings by understanding the works of the ancient philosophers who laid the foundations of democracy from the early days. Even looking at the democracy around the world today, it's clear that there are degrees to which countries choose to adhere or stray from democratic ideals. Understanding where these ideals developed from and the development of democracy over time is essential to determining what endangers these ideals in the present. Drawing from recent research and critical arguments on the development of democracy, within these pages, you'll discover: The early years of democracy and the evolution of democracy through the ages Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle - Greek philosophers whose contributions to political theory helped to shape democracy as we now know it today The democratic ideas in Ancient Rome that helped design some of the foundations of modern governments The emergency of a modern parliamentary system that resulted from reforms throughout the Medieval Ages How the Roman Republic created a legacy that continues to endure - and what we can learn from its downfall The evidence that shows widely held beliefs about democracy in the Medieval Era may be mistaken The roots of America's democracy and democracy in America now Case studies - a comparison of democracies around the world today to explore why some countries are fully democratic while others are heavily authoritarian The rising threats to democracy jeopardizing the systems that have been in place in some form for centuries And much more. Democracy has reshaped society from oppressive and authoritarian systems to a more egalitarian one, but the work is still not done. Even today, democracy is still a work in progress, and it will continue to transform as civilizations grow and develop. By understanding the principles behind Democracy and its evolution worldwide, we have a better chance of achieving "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people." If you're ready to study the history of democracy today, then scroll up and grab your copy of Democracy From Then to Now.

American democracy owes its origins to the colonial settlement of North America by Europeans. Since the birth of the republic, observers such as Alexis de Tocqueville and J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur have emphasized how American democratic identity arose out of the distinct pattern by which English settlers colonized the New World. Empire of the People explores a new way of understanding this process—and in doing so, offers a fundamental reinterpretation of modern democratic thought in the Americas. In Empire of the People, Adam Dahl examines the ideological development of American democratic thought in the context of settler colonialism, a distinct form of colonialism aimed at the appropriation of Native land rather than the exploitation of Native labor. By placing the development of American political thought and culture in the context of nineteenth-century settler expansion, his work reveals how practices and ideologies of Indigenous dispossession have laid the cultural and social foundations of American democracy, and in doing so profoundly shaped key concepts in modern democratic theory such as consent, social equality, popular sovereignty, and federalism. To uphold its legitimacy, Dahl also argues, settler political thought must disavow the origins of democracy in colonial dispossession—and in turn erase the political and historical presence of native peoples. Empire of the People traces this thread through the conceptual and theoretical architecture of American democratic politics—in the works of thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Alexis de Tocqueville, John O’Sullivan, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, and William Apess. In its focus on the disavowal of Native dispossession in democratic thought, the book provides a new perspective on the problematic relationship between race and democracy—and a different and more nuanced interpretation of the role of settler colonialism in the foundations of democratic culture and society.

How the Catholic Church redefined its relationship to the state in the wake of the French Revolution Catholicism and Democracy is a history of Catholic political thinking from the French Revolution to the present day. Emile Perreau-Saussine investigates the church's response to liberal democracy, a political system for which the church was utterly unprepared. Looking at leading philosophers and political theologians—among them Joseph de Maistre, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Charles Péguy—Perreau-Saussine shows how the church redefined its relationship to the state in the long wake of the French Revolution. Disenfranchised by the fall of the monarchy, the church in France at first embraced that most conservative of ideologies, "ultramontanism" (an emphasis on the central role of the papacy). Catholics whose church had lost its national status henceforth looked to the papacy for spiritual authority. Perreau-Saussine argues that this move paradoxically combined a fundamental repudiation of the liberal political order with an implicit acknowledgment of one of its core principles, the autonomy of the church from the state. However, as Perreau-Saussine shows, in the context of twentieth-century totalitarianism, the Catholic Church retrieved elements of its Gallican heritage and came to embrace another liberal (and Gallican) principle, the autonomy of the state from the church, for the sake of its corollary, freedom of religion. Perreau-Saussine concludes that Catholics came to terms with liberal democracy, though not without abiding concerns about the potential of that system to compromise freedom of religion in the pursuit of other goals.

"Historical accounts of democracy's rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer--democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished--and when and why they declined--can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future."--