Introduction - The appearance of Democracy - birth and infancy in Greece

I am beginning a series of posts outlining and discussing the initial development of democracy. The first one is here. The era of focus is a slightly more than 400 year period, beginning about 750 BC. While this start is in the far past in human terms, nearly 2800 years ago, the issues raised are remarkably relevant to the challenges facing democracy in the present day.

The seeds of democracy can lie dormant but they are always present, sometimes just below the surface. This can be cold comfort in anti-democratic times, but sustaining the memory awareness of their presence can be a valuable source of hope and agency. They are always there because at base, most of our species highly values freedom, self-determination, and community. These values are the seed. The seeds begin to stir when inequality exists and in particular when concentrated power is the parent of oppression. Thus, paradoxically, oppression can be seen as the water and sunlight for the dormant seeds of democracy, leading to protest and resistance, and sometimes new or stronger democratic structures and values.

Early Democracy

When not yet formed,

the very early stirrings are fireflies:

hard to see at first;

small;

delicate and transient;

more numerous than initially apparent, and;

when conditions are right,

reappear even after the

harshest winter.

David Mead-Fox