Greece
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, a 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.  

Rome

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.  Senators were elected for life, and only came from the group of land-owning aristocrats called Patricians.  Senators, in turn, elected two consuls, who were responsible for the daily business management of the government, and who were in charge of the army. A consul is like a president, but is appointed, and serves for only one year.

Problems arose in Rome because the lower class plebeians had little power in government, and had to rely on the patronage of patricians in order to make changes.  In fact, by 450 BCE, 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 influenced later democratic thinkers during the Enlightenment, over 2000 years later.

In the later Republic, a few patricians, such as the brothers Gaius and Tiberius Gracchus, began lobbying for expanded plebeian rights.  Politically, it was a dangerous job, and many patricians struggling for plebeian representation were assassinated.

By the beginning of the Common Era, Rome had conquered nearly all of the land around the Mediterranean Sea.  Attempts to reform Roman government led to a series of civil wars, and the republican form of government lost out to a veiled kind of monarchy with an emperor at its head.  The emperor still maintained the Senate, but they were at his command, and rarely voted contrary his wishes.  By the end of the Pax Romana, democracy was nearly dead in Rome.

Northern European Democracy and its Descendants

As a form of government, democracy was virtually unheard of in Europe after about 150 CE.  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 Protestant. The Bill of Rights ensured the supremacy of Parliament over the monarchy in England.  England was still not a true democracy, but it was taking steps toward becoming one.

As children of England, 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 (John Locke); religious toleration and freedom of speech (Voltaire); separation of powers (Baron de Montesquieu).

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.