Analyze some Data

Democracy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For the use of the term "democracy" as a system involving distribution of political power in the hands of the public which forms the electorate, representative government, and freedom of speech, see Liberal democracy. For other uses, see Democracy (disambiguation). Athenian democracy was not only direct in the sense that decisions were made by the assembled people, but also the most direct in the sense that the people through the assembly, boule and courts of law controlled the entire political process and a large proportion of citizens were involved constantly in the public business.[25] Even though the rights of the individual were not secured by the Athenian constitution in the modern sense (the ancient Greeks had no word for "rights"[26]), the Athenians enjoyed their liberties not in opposition to the government but by living in a city that was not subject to another power and by not being subjects themselves to the rule of another person.[27] Range voting appeared in Sparta as early as 700 BCE. The Apella was an assembly of the people, held once a month. In the Apella, Spartans elect leaders and made voting by range voting and shouting. Every male citizen of age 30 could participate. Aristotle called this "childish," as opposed to something sophisticated as using stone voting ballots the Athenians used. But in terms, Sparta adopted it because of its simplicity, and to prevent any bias voting, buying, or cheating that was predominant in the early democratic elections.[28][29] Even though the Roman Republic contributed significantly to many aspects of democracy, only a minority of Romans were citizens with votes in elections for representatives. The votes of the powerful were given more weight through a system of gerrymandering, so most high officials, including members of the Senate, came from a few wealthy and noble families.[30] However, many notable exceptions did occur.[citation needed] In addition, the Roman Republic was the first government in the western world to have a Republic as a nation-state, although it didn't have much of a democracy. The Romans invented the concept of classics and many works from Ancient Greece were preserved.[31] Additionally, the Roman model of governance inspired many political thinkers over the centuries,[32] and today's modern representative democracies imitate more the Roman than the Greek models because it was a state in which supreme power was held by the people and their elected representatives, and which had an elected or nominated leader.[33] Representative democracy is a form of democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives as opposed to a direct democracy, a form of democracy in which people vote on policy initiatives directly.[34] Other cultures, such as the Iroquis Nation, also independently developed democratic societies. This indicates that democracy is far older than the Greek version of democracy. At the very least, it shows that democracy was a system invented in many places around the world, not only in the Western World.