Abraham Lincoln
By Bayo Ogunmupe
Elsewhere, we have answered the question, What is democracy? Now we are concerned with the story of this admirable system of government. The word democracy was invented by the ancient Greeks about 500 years before Christ. It was formed from the Greek words, a noun that means people (demos) and a verb that means rule (kratein).
The idea of democracy grew out of the people's desire for a way of living that would give them protection as well as personal liberties and above all, happiness. These ideas and way of life were best expressed by Thomas Jefferson and are to be found in the American Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
In the earliest days, people lived together in family communities under their own laws, later people grouped together in clans and tribes and gradually in larger organizations- villages, cities, states and vast countries under a single government.
However, the earliest government that called itself a democracy was in Greece, under the leadership of Pericles. He lived 450 years before Christ. But Greece was not a single nation but a collection of city states. It was in Athens, the most important and powerful of these city-states that Greek democracy flourished.
The ideal of democratic movement in Athens was that all adult male citizens should have equal right to take part in government. Thus, Greek democracy was the business, not of some small exclusive group of noble families, but of all the citizens. Such idea was a great step forward in politics and government at that time. Athens was the first government of major importance actually to try out such an idea.
By the beginning of the modern age, around the 17th century, democracy gained greater momentum. Around this time in England, fearless thinkers and leaders maintained the doctrine that government is the servant of the people rather than that the people are the servants of government. One of the brilliant spokesmen in England, for democracy, John Locke, was persecuted by government, just like the radical lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, is being persecuted in Nigeria today.
The struggle for democracy moved to the Americans in the second half of the 18th century. With the British Government continuing to levy taxes upon the American colonies without their consent and without giving them representation in Parliament. The resentment of the colonists grew and in April 1775, at Lexington, the mounting tension led to the American Revolutionary War. The war which was fought for eight years, gave birth to a free and independent nation. "The Fourth of July," is celebrated in America every year in recognition of July 4, 1776, the day the colonies asserted their formal Declaration of Independence.
After the final victory over the British forces, the Articles of Confederation set up as the basis of Central Government for the states proved unsatisfactory because they did not give the government enough authority to operate efficiently.
The success of revolution in America fuelled discontent in France where King Louis XIV had avowed himself the state. In 1789, the French people rebelled, proclaiming the famous Declaration of the Rights of Man- a document which went further than the American Declaration of Independence. The French document abolished feudalism, whereas the US Declaration did not stop slavery until the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863 by the order of President Abraham Lincoln during the civil war.
This far is the journey of democracy. Since this form of government rests on the consent of the governed, thus, the underlying philosophy is not that the common man is all wise but only that he can govern himself better than anyone else can do it for him.
This article was first published here on January 26, 1993. Today marks the silver jubilee anniversary of its author Chief Ogunmupe as a weekly columnist of The Guardian.
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