us became a representative democracy in 1787.
us became a representative democracy in 1787.
when did the us become a representative democracy?
1787
Na
Na
the second part of the book is dedicated to the invention of the representative model. shaped by forces as varied as the rebirth of towns, the rise (in northern spain) of the first parliaments, and the conflicts unleashed by self-governing councils and religious dissent within the christian church, democracy came to be understood as representative democracy in this second phase. contrary to what other sources have often suggested, keane points out that the oldest roots of that democratic model are in fact undemocratic. the first parliament was not english, but spanish. keane locates the birth of representative parliaments in the cloisters of san isidoro church, in león, northern spain - the site where king alfonso ix convened the first cortes in 1188 ce. yet it took several centuries before the term representation began to be used in conjunction with democracy. the birthplace of talk of 'representative democracy' – unknown to the greeks - was late-eighteenth century france, england and the new american republic. to find a common accepted definition of the word and of the actual meaning of representation (who was entitled to represent whom and what had to be done when representatives disregarded those whom they were supposed to represent ) was by no means an easy task to accomplish. much ink and blood was spilled. the representative model of democracy as we know it is for keane the result of many and different power conflicts, many of them bitterly fought in opposition to ruling groups, whether they were church hierarchies, landowners or imperial monarchies, often in the name of "the people". the concept of the sovereign "people" was one of the most contested in this second phase. the bitter controversies over who "the people" were, along with the common belief of the time that good government was government by representatives, characterised this era of representative democracy, an era which also saw the birth of an abundance of democracy-related neologisms, such as social democracy, liberal democracy and christian democracy. often contrasted with monarchy, representative democracy was praised as a way of governing better by openly airing differences of opinion – not only among the represented themselves, but also between representatives and those whom they are supposed to represent while encouraging the rotation of leadership guided by merit.
the life and death of democracy