Part 1 - The appearance and construction of Democracy - childhood to maturity in Greece

Introduction and perspective

In this second series, I continue outlining the early years of Democracy.  The prior 5-part series, The appearance of Democracy - birth to infancy in Greece, covered the development of the seeds and some saplings (750 to 500 B.C.).  

This section, The appearance & construction of Democracy - childhood to maturity in Greece, moves forward in time to the growth of a fully formed tree. (500 to 322 B.C.).  

Before proceeding, it is worth pausing for some perspective and a look at relative timeframes. As we have seen, it took 250 years in the archaic age for the early stirrings of Democracy to form in Greece.  Then, as I will discuss in the following, it took just under 200 years for Democracy to reach its full maturity (and death).  

The United States has formally existed for 246 years, beginning in 1776.  Clearly, this did not come out of nowhere.  Arguably, the United States had its own “Archaic age” from the establishment of Jamestown in 1610 to 1776 or 167 years.  

Another comparison is England. While the formal birth of Democracy in England is generally seen as the passage of the Reform Act in 1832, England’s “Archaic age” of Democracy began in 1610 with the Case of Proclamations limiting the power of the monarchy.  This is a period of 222 years.  

Some of these years can be debated and altered to some degree.  However, the point of this is the following:

First, particularly historically, Democracy has had a long gestation period - centralized power does not yield quickly or voluntarily. There are many forward and backward steps, twists and turns.  Anti-Democratic movements and actions are relentless and ongoing at all times. This makes keeping current democracies alive even more vital. 

Second, Democracy does not have a long track record.  Think for a moment about the bigger picture.  Over about 5,000 years of recorded human history and a species dispersed widely throughout our planet, two from this short list of three are arguably the most prominent extant examples.   

And, currently, there are ten countries that have been electoral democracies for more than a century: Australia, Canada, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Of the 195 countries and 15 territories in the world as of 2021, about half are democracies. Nearly all are very young and as a consequence likely more fragile.  And, according to Freedom House, for the past 16 years, a key motive for democracy, freedom, has been declining.  Today, 38% of the global population live in Not Free countries, the highest proportion since 1997.  Only about 20% of the global population live in Free countries. The remaining 32% are in an “in-between” state.  Please see the most recent Freedom House report here for more information.  So, while there are more democracies in existence now than in all of human history, things are clearly not going well.  

In the next series of posts, I will outline more of the Greek experience and continue to work to draw out lessons relevant for the present.