Democratic regimes: past and present

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

What are democratic values? All modern politics, as well as international relations, literally revolve around this concept. Numerous political opponents in various states constantly accuse each other of the lack of this very democracy. Most advanced

world states of our time are countries with a democratic regime. At the same time, states that have other principles of governance and values become pariahs. Democratic regimes, according to the prominent contemporary thinker Francis Fukuyama, are not only the most progressive in the modern world, but also the ideal forms of government. And this view today really has many supporters. After all, democratic regimes actually demonstrate the greatest productivity and viability.

Ancient origins of democracy

The idea of democracy is a native European product. Its first implemented version was the policies of ancient Greece, where government agencies

(Areopagus, bule, councils of archons) were elected by voting, and mostimportant decisions for the cities were made by all the people. It is interesting that a procedure was even invented here, which is an actual preventive measure to protect the democratic regime of the polis state - ostracism. Many achievements of ancient Greek civilization were later picked up by the Romans. Including the idea of democracy has acquired new forms here. It was in the Roman Republic that the concept of citizenship, close to modernity, was born. In addition, for the first time in the world, the idea of separating the branches of power arose and was implemented here - something without which such a form of government is unthinkable even today.

Democratic regimes in modern times

With the fall of ancient civilization, many of its achievements, including those in political thought, were lost for a long time. Again, the ideas of democratic governance began to emerge and develop progressive thinkers of modern times: Hobbes, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Locke and others. During this period, among other proposals of the philosophers of the era, important ideas about the so-called "social contract" arise. For the first time since time immemorial, unquestioning

monarchs' claims to absolute power began to be questioned. By the way, the formation of ideas about democracy also influenced the emergence of national communities as we know them today. The most important moment in the formation and design of the modern world order was the Great French Revolution, which took place in 1789. According to its results, for the first time in Europe, the monarch as such was overthrown. Of course, this episode was onlythe beginning of a long journey, when previously inviolable kings and dynasties were losing their positions, and confidence in their natural and civil rights was strengthened in the mass consciousness of the European peoples. Progress still had to struggle with reaction during the next 19th and 20th centuries. Democratic regimes were established one after another, first in Europe and then around the world.