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DEMOCRACY (Gr. 3np.oKparia, from S)µos, the See also: political science, that See also: form of See also: government in which the See also: people rules itself, either directly, as in the small city-states of See also: Greece, or through representatives
.
According to See also: Aristotle, democracy is the perverted form of the
1 For the " four years' war " and the See also: chronological questions involved, see C
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W
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See also: Muller, Frag
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Hist
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Graec. ii
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445
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ii
third form of government, which he called rroXireia, " polity " or " constitutional government," the
See also: rule of the majority of the See also: free and equal citizens, as opposed to See also: monarchy and aristocracy, the rule respectively of an individual and of a minority consisting of the best citizens (see GOVERNMENT and ARISTOCRACY)
.
Aristotle's restriction of " democracy " to See also: bad popular government, i.e. See also: mob-rule, or, as it has sometimes been called, " ochlocracy (bxXos, mob), was due to, the fact that the Athenian democracy had in his See also: day degenerated far, below the ideals of the 5th century, when it reached its See also: zenith under See also: Pericles
.
Since Aristotle's day the word has resumed its natural meaning, but democracy in See also: modern times is a very different thing from what it was in its best days in Greece and See also: Rome
.
The See also: Greek states were what are known as " city-states," the characteristic of which was that all the citizens could assemble together in the city at See also: regular intervals for legislative and other purposes
.
This See also: sovereign See also: assembly of the people was known at Athens as the Ecclesia (q.v.), at See also: Sparta as the See also: Apella (q.v.), at Rome variously as the See also: Comitia Centuriata or the Concilium Plebis (see CoMITIA)
.
Of representative government in the modern sense there is practically no trace in Athenian See also: history, though certain of the magistrates (see See also: STRATEGUS) had a quasi-representative character
.
See also: Direct democracy is impossible except in small states
.
In the second place the qualification for citizenship was rigorous; thus Pericles restricted citizenship to those who were the sons of an Athenian See also: father, himself a citizen, and an Athenian See also: mother (it 406E11 berrooiv)
.
This See also: system excluded not only all the slaves; who were more numerous than the free population, but also See also: resident aliens, subject See also: allies, and those Athenians whose descent did not satisfy this criterion (r4ji'yivet jo ,caOapoi)
.
The Athenian democracy, which was typical in See also: ancient Greece, was a highly exclusive form of government
.
With the growth of See also: empire and nation states this narrow parochial type of democracy became impossible
.
The population became too large and the distance too See also: great for regular assemblies of qualified citizens
.
The rigid distinction of citizens and non-citizens was progressively more difficult to maintain, and new criteria of citizenship came into force
.
The first difficulty has been met by various forms of representative government
.
The second problem has been solved in various ways in different countries; moderate democracies have adopted a low See also: property qualification, while extreme democracy is based on the extension of citizenship to all adult persons with or without distinction of sex
.
The essence of modern representative government is that the people does not govern itself, but periodically elects those who shall govern on its behalf (see GOVERNMENT; See also: REPRESENTATION)
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