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Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Why Democracy? The History
and Development of a Concept
Eric Davis
http:// fas-polisci.rutgers.edu
[email protected]
http://new-middle-east.blogspot.com/
Democracy Institute
Washington Township High School
October 4-5, 2012
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
“It has been said that democracy is
the worst form of government except
all the others that have been tried.”
Winston Churchill, Nov. 1947
“I believe in democracy, because it
releases the energies of every
human being
Woodrow Wilson, Sept, 1912
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Why is democracy a misunderstood concept?
 Democracy – demo (Greek for the people) and kratia
(rule by, namely “rule by the people”)
 Why do so few students understand and show an
interest in the concept?
 What can be done to stimulate student interest in
democratic institutions and processes?
 Under what conditions does democracy thrive and
under what conditions does it falter?
 What are the challenges currently facing American
democracy?
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Democracy’s social requisites
 Democracy is a fragile type of political system
 A democracy requires its citizens to share a
national identity and national goals
 To sustain itself, democracy requires an
informed and committed citizenry
 Democracy is a system based on contestation
 Democracies cannot survive without struggle
 Democracies require an active civil society
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
An exercise in imagination
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Building a democracy from scratch
 Why should students be interested in the
concept of democracy?
 We can stimulate their interests by asking
them to imagine a group of students like
themselves being stranded on a desert island
 What would they do? How would they sustain
themselves over time?
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Building a democracy from scratch
 Unless they decided that life would be every
person for her/himself, students would face the
problem of social organization
 They would need to organize themselves as a
community
 They would be faced with a number of
decisions which all societies face – how do all
the members divide up critical social tasks?
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Democracy and choice
 Students could decide that their new mini-society
would be organized as a democracy
 Some students would be administrators (leaders) and
others citizens (the ruled)
 To have a democracy, the administrators would need
to report to the larger group on the decisions which
they made and the reasons why they made them
 Or the group could choose to delegate complete
authority to the administrators, allowing them to
establish authoritarian rule – a dictatorship in effect
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Core concepts of democracy
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Key concepts students need to learn
 Social stratification – we all occupy different
roles when we choose to live in a social setting
 Citizenship – once we opt to live socially, we
become citizens and receive benefits
 Civic responsibility – with citizenship benefits
also comes social responsibilities
 Political participation – citizen participation
is central to a society’s effective functioning
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Key concepts students need to learn
 Informed choice – citizens can only receive benefits
and fulfill their civic responsibilities if they have
access to necessary information
 Checks and balances – citizens require mechanisms
to control those who rule them
 Institutions – these are the “rules of the game” which
determine how politics functions
 Elections – this institution allows citizens to decide
periodically to keep or reject their leaders
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Key concepts students need to learn
 Legitimacy – when citizens feel that those who rule
them have authority and ought to be obeyed
 Minority rights – the dominant opinion(s) in society
should never lead to the “tyranny of the majority”
 Rule of law – everyone should be judged equally
before the law which should not discriminate against
citizens based on race, gender, religion, national
origin, or political ideology
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Core concepts of democracy
 A true democracy must allow all (legal) views
to be expressed in society
 Democracy requires citizens to have certain
liberties: freedom of expression, assembly,
religion (or atheism), property rights, and to be
treated fairly according to the rule of law
 Democracies must now discriminate against its
citizens based on race, gender, national origin or
social class – all citizens are equal
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The origins of democracy
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The contributions of ancient Mesopotamia
 Early components of democracy developed
long before the Greeks in classical Athens
 The idea of democracy began in the “land
between the two rivers” or what is also know as
the Fertile Crescent, i.e., present-day Iraq
 Ancient Iraq developed several firsts:
 First use of term “freedom” as we understand
it today, first parliament, and first example of a
parliament controlling the executive branch
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The contributions of ancient Mesopotamia
 Mesopotamia saw development of first
language (Cuneiform)
 First comprehensive legal code in 1772 BCE
 Hammurabi’s code comprises 282 laws and
still is part of most modern legal systems today
 The longest known ancient text, Hammurabi’s
Code shows concern for society’s less fortunate
members
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Example of cuneiform
writing as developed by
Mesopotamian merchants
Hammurabi’s Code (282 laws)
The 5th Law: If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and
present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear
in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he
shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and
he shall be publicly removed from the judge's bench, and
never again shall he sit there to render judgment.
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Bas-relief of Hammurabi in the U.S.
House of Representatives chamber
Hammurabi on
Supreme Court frieze
Hammurabi’s impact on the US government
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The development of democracy
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The Athenian polis
 Athenian Polis was famous for its direct democracy
 Americans can find the origins of their own New
England town meetings in ancient Athens
 Athenian democracy lasted from 510 BCE to 338
BCE when Macedonians defeated Athens at the Battle
of Chaeroneain
 Athens was unique since other Greek city-states,
e.g., Sparta, did not develop democratic systems
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The Acropolis – artist rendering
and contemporary image
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
What were the polis’ qualities?
 The polis developed around the Acropolis which
was originally built as a protective fortress
 Participation in Athenian democracy was limited
 Membership in the polis was hereditary and could
not be transferred, i.e., it was defined by blood
 Politics was dominated by male citizens; women,
non-property owners and slaves were excluded
 Only 10% of polis’ males could hold office
(estimated 14,000 of 140,000 inhabitants)
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
What were the polis’ qualities?
 Polis was organized around the agora (market)
 Agora became the polis’ intellectual center
where important political discourse occurred
 Citizens had duties but no rights
 They debated each other in public assemblies,
indicating a commitment to the polis
 Polis was small – Plato said ideal size would
be a population of 5040 adults
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
What were the polis’ qualities?
 Citizens were linked by blood and family
 All citizens joined in political, religious, legal,
intellectual, artistic, and athletic activities
 A key quality of the polis – civic participation
 A vibrant civil society existed in which a
strong sense of community developed
 Still, majority of inhabitants were excluded
from public life
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Why is Greek tradition so important?
 It is not only due to the political institutions and
processes alone
 It is more due to ideas of the Greek thinkers
 in The Republic, Plato asked: what is the nature of
the just society? Socrates developed the Socratic
method. In The Politics, Aristotle wrote a treatise on
different forms of government
 Athens produced great playwrights, historians,
scientists and mathematicians
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The Republican tradition
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The Roman Republic
 The Roman Republic lasted from 509 BCE until 27
BCE (others argued that Julius Caesar’s assassination
in 44 BCE ended the Republic)
 Republic: Res Publica or Commonwealth
 Ended with Senate granting Octavian (Caesar
Augustus) dictatorial powers in 27 BCE
 Importance of Republic was the form of government
it bequeathed to the world
 Idea of the Republic contrasts with the polis because
the size of the Roman Empire did not allow for direct
democracy
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The Roman Republic
 Overthrow of Roman monarchy in 509 BCE marked
the beginning of Republican period
 The Roman Republic’s most important contributions
to democracy are its institutions
 Most renowned was the Roman Senate which was
designed to be more structured than Athenian polis
 Second most important institution was its legal
system, including an unwritten constitution
 Key idea in Roman Republic was that ultimate
sovereignty lay with the people
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The Curia Julia
- Roman Senate
building
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Comparing Athens and the Roman Republic
 Both political systems shared a face-to-face and oral
culture
 Both lacked strong a bureaucratic structure
 The “social glue” which held the political system
together was honor, patriotism and civic duty
 Ancient Athens and Rome provided a model for the
European Renaissance and the onset of modern
thinking about democracy
 But both societies favored the well-to-do and ignored
the interests of the common people
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Modern liberalism and
Social Contract theory
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The rise of liberalism
 The rise of liberalism in Continental Europe and
the British Isles was caused in large measure by the
beginnings of the Industrial Revolution
 Feudal concept of society which was comprised of
4 groups: monarchy, clergy, nobility, and serfs
 Gradually, the rise of the concept of individualism
replaced notion of divine right of kings
 Rising commercial and entrepreneurial class
challenged church, landowners and Medieval guild
structure
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The rise of liberalism
 The idea of absolute monarchy began to be eroded
in England in 1215 with Magna Carta
 Beheading of Charles I in 1649
ended notion of divine right of kings
 Kings now forced to consult with
parliament which held real power
 With growth in urban areas as result of Industrial
Revolution, more people began to think in political
terms and desire political participation
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The rise of liberalism
 The rise of liberalism and curtailing power of
the king was a result of economic growth
 Merchants and small industrialists could
now challenge the monarchy and landowners
 Guild system lost its ability to control
production in urban areas
 Parliament acquired ever more power, even
if its members were from prosperous classes
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The development of liberal ideas
 One of the key ideas of liberal thought was
the notion of the social contract
 This was a fiction upon which to base the
ideas of liberalism
 How could liberals explain and justify the
rights of individual subjects and the need of
the sovereign (king) to heed their wishes?
 Social contract theory was the answer
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The development of early liberal ideas
 Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is best known
for his concept of the state of nature
 He argued all men wanted to escape this
state where life was “nasty, brutish and short”
 Hobbes argued that men exchanged the right
to live in a state of nature for the security they
received from ceding authority to a sovereign
 But unless the sovereign repressed his
people, they could not challenge his authority
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The contributions of John Locke
 Hobbes’ system allowed citizens very little
room to challenge their ruler (the monarch)
 John Locke (1632-1704) – is known as the
“Father of Classic Liberalism”
 Locke gave citizens more rights than Hobbes
 With Hobbes, and other English and Scottish
liberals, Locke argued for limited government
and the right to own private property
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The contributions of John Locke
 Locke affected Voltaire and Rousseau, and
Scottish Enlightenment thinkers such as
Adam Smith, and American revolutionaries
 Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton,
James Madison were some of the American
thinkers affected by Locke’s writings
 Unlike Hobbes, Locke believed that human
nature was both tolerant and based in reason
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
The fundamentals of liberal thought
 The rights of the individual (vs. the state)
 The natural equality of all men
 The idea of civil society – that public space where
citizens organize to pursue their mutual interests
uncontrolled by the state
 The idea that political authority is only legitimate
when it is representative, namely based on the
consent of the governed
 That citizens have the right to do whatever they
wish, unless it is explicitly forbidden by the law
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Communitarian liberal thought
 While Locke sought to reduce the state’s intrusion
into the citizen’s life, others viewed democratic
thought in more activist terms
 Rousseau (1712-1778) believed man reached his
potential when he left the state of nature
 But left on his own, man would not pursue liberty
or democracy
 For Rousseau, man had to be “forced to be free”
through adhering to the “General Will”
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Communitarian liberal thought
 Rousseau wanted a more activist form of
government which worked for all of society
 He was one of the theorists of democracy to
challenge the idea of private property
 Rousseau wanted a state in which social
inequality is eliminated
 He differed from Locke who emphasizes
“negative liberty” and the individual, and
avoids the concept of community
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Three thinkers closely associated
with the development of liberalism
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
What have we learned?
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
How has the past affected the present?
 Two very different traditions inform the concept of
democracy
 Early Greek and Roman concepts were narrow in
scope and limited to the privileged elite
 Hobbes and Locke’s foremost task was to protect the
individual and expand his rights in relation to state
 Rousseau supported social democracy, where the
state actively involves itself in lessening inequality
 One idea of democracy is directed at the individual
while the other promotes community building
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Tensions in democratic thought
 What are the main tensions that confront the
institutions and processes of democracy?
 The tension between civic obligations and the
rights of the individual
 The tension between individual freedom and
the need for order and stability
 The tension between strong institutions and
the exercise of democratic freedoms and
individual liberty
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Democracy between theory and practice
 The ancient Greeks laid the foundation for much
subsequent democratic theory
 Why is Greek thought still so relevant today?
 What are the contradictions of ancient Greek
political theory?
 If the polis excluded large numbers of its members,
in what sense was it democratic?
 Can democratic theory be derived from political
processes that are inherently undemocratic in nature?
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Republican concepts of democracy
 How did Republican thinkers respond to the
collapse of the Athenian polis?
 How do Republican thinkers today confront
the problem of order in democratic polities?
 How can the Republican form of democracy
insure that elected officials do not create a
dictatorship?
 Why does property loom so large in their
thinking about democratic processes?
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Participation and democratic rule
 What type for political participation is required
to have democratic rule?
 How does the notion of participation among the
ancient Greeks differ from modern notions?
 What do citizens today owe their country?
 How does Rousseau’s notion of participation
infringe upon individual rights?
 How then do we reconcile the requirements of
civic engagement with individual liberty?
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Summary comments
 Critical to realize that democracy differs
over time and space in dramatic ways
 But democracy does have certain constants:
freedom, liberty, representative government,
fair and periodic elections, accountability,
transparency in decision-making, social
inclusion, the rule of law, minority rights
 Core debates today include the role of the
state in everyday life – what should it be?
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Summary Comments II
 Is the government the friend or the enemy of the
people? Is it the solution or the problem?
 How can government serve the interests of its
citizenry without becoming an uncontrolled,
bureaucratic Behemoth?
 Should government be concerned with income
inequality and expanding human rights, e.g., gay
marriage?
 Or is its role only that of the “night watchman state,”
i.e., defending the nation, providing public works and
insuring legal contracts are enforced?
Department of Political Science
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rutgers University
Bibliography
Dahl, Robert, On Democracy
Held, David, Models of Democracy
Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan
Kramer, Sidney Noah, History Begins at Sumer
Locke, John, Two Treatises of Government
McPherson, C.B., The Theory of Possessive
Individualism
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, The Social Contract
and Emile, or On Education
Wolin, Sheldon, Politics and Vision