The Ancient Greeks were the first to use democracy as a form of government. Under Pericles, male citizens in Athens participated in the daily running of government. This form of direct democracy excluded all non-citizens, such as women and slaves. Today, many governments around the world practice some form of democracy.

 In Ancient Rome, a government where officials were chosen from among eligible citizens was established. A republic, as this form of democratic government is known, is not a direct democracy. It is called representative democracy, since only a few chosen officials represent the citizens as a whole.

During the period when Rome was a republic, from about 509 BCE. to around 270 BCE., the Senate was the most powerful branch of government.  By 450 BCE., the lower-class plebeians had succeeded in getting the laws of Rome written down for all to see. The Laws of the Twelve Tables were the basis of Roman law, and continue to influence law in the modern world.

Attempts to reform Roman government during the Common Era led to a series of civil wars, and the republican form of government lost out to monarchy, with an emperor leading Rome.  The emperor kept the Senate, but they were at his command, and rarely voted against him. By the end of the Pax Romana, democracy was nearly dead in Rome.

As a form of government, democracy was rare in Europe between second and thirteenth centuries. In 1215 CE, the nobility in England forced King John to sign a Great Charter, the Magna Carta, recognizing their rights as land-owners, citizens of England, and subjects of the king. After that, it was not until the late 1600s that democratic ideals began to resurface in Europe, when some English and French philosophers began promoting democratic government in place of the absolute monarchies under which they lived.

In England, the English Bill of Rights was passed by Parliament after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Power was transferred from Catholic James II to his son-in-law and daughter, William and Mary, both of whom were Protestants. The Bill of Rights ensured the supremacy of Parliament over the monarchy in England. England was not yet a true democracy, but it was taking steps toward becoming one.

As English subjects, the colonies in America had the benefit of knowing a democratic form of government. In 1776, the American colonies declared their independence from England based on many real and perceived wrongs that they had suffered. The original revolutionaries wrote a declaration outlining their grievances, and claimed the right to self rule, or sovereignty. The Declaration of Independence included many Enlightenment ideas: the right to life, liberty and property, religious toleration and freedom of speech, separation of powers.

The success of the American Revolution and its guiding principles was a major inspiration of the French Revolution in 1789, and the Latin American Revolutions of the 1790s and early 1800s. Proof that foreign rule and slave chains could be thrown off was extremely encouraging to the mixed-blood inhabitants of the Caribbean islands, and Latin America.

The Modern World

In the 1830s and 1840s, a series of democratic revolutions occurred throughout Europe. Most of them were harshly put down. After World War II, most of northern, western and southern Europe, America, Japan, South America and the parts of the former British Empire, practiced some form of democracy. Today, democracy is one of the most widely practiced political systems in the world.