Editing Democracy (section)

====Early modern period====
[[File:House of Commons during King Charles I's reign, circa 1640-1642 from NPG.jpg|thumb|Over the centuries, the [[Parliament of England|English Parliament]] progressively limited the power of the [[History of monarchy in the United Kingdom#English monarchy|English monarchy]], a process that arguably culminated in the [[English Civil War]].]]
In 17th century England, there was [[Magna Carta#17th–18th centuries|renewed interest in Magna Carta]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/videos/from-legal-document-to-public-myth-magna-carta-in-the-17th-century|title=From legal document to public myth: Magna Carta in the 17th century|website=The British Library|access-date=16 October 2017|postscript=none|archive-date=18 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018101349/https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/videos/from-legal-document-to-public-myth-magna-carta-in-the-17th-century|url-status=dead}}; {{Cite web|url=https://www.sal.org.uk/events/2015/06/magna-carta-magna-carta-in-the-17th-century/|title=Magna Carta: Magna Carta in the 17th Century|website=The Society of Antiquaries of London|access-date=16 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925053248/https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/videos/from-legal-document-to-public-myth-magna-carta-in-the-17th-century|archive-date=25 September 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Parliament of England passed the [[Petition of Right]] in 1628 which established certain liberties for subjects. The [[English Civil War]] (1642–1651) was fought between the King and an oligarchic but elected Parliament,<ref>{{cite web|title=Origins and growth of Parliament|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/citizen_subject/origins.htm|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=7 April 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Rise of Parliament|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/rise_parliament/citizenship2.htm|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=7 April 2015}}</ref> during which the idea of a political party took form with groups debating rights to political representation during the [[Putney Debates]] of 1647.<ref>{{cite web|title=Putney debates|url=https://www.bl.uk/taking-liberties/articles/putney-debates|publisher=The British Library|access-date=22 December 2016|archive-date=22 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161222223321/https://www.bl.uk/taking-liberties/articles/putney-debates|url-status=dead}}</ref> Subsequently, [[the Protectorate]] (1653–59) and the [[English Restoration]] (1660) restored more autocratic rule, although Parliament passed the [[Habeas Corpus Act 1679|Habeas Corpus Act]] in 1679 which strengthened the convention that forbade detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence. After the [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688, the [[Bill of Rights 1689|Bill of Rights]] was enacted in 1689 which codified certain rights and liberties and is still in effect. The Bill set out the requirement for regular elections, rules for freedom of speech in Parliament and limited the power of the monarch, ensuring that, unlike much of Europe at the time, [[royal absolutism]] would not prevail.<ref name="refNARoP" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Constitutionalism: America & Beyond|url=http://www.ait.org.tw/infousa/zhtw/DOCS/Demopaper/dmpaper2.html|publisher=Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), U.S. Department of State|access-date=30 October 2014|quote=The earliest, and perhaps greatest, victory for liberalism was achieved in England. The rising commercial class that had supported the Tudor monarchy in the 16th century led the revolutionary battle in the 17th and succeeded in establishing the supremacy of Parliament and, eventually, of the House of Commons. What emerged as the distinctive feature of modern constitutionalism was not the insistence on the idea that the king is subject to law (although this concept is an essential attribute of all constitutionalism). This notion was already well established in the Middle Ages. What was distinctive was the establishment of effective means of political control whereby the rule of law might be enforced. Modern constitutionalism was born with the political requirement that representative government depended upon the consent of citizen subjects... However, as can be seen through provisions in the 1689 Bill of Rights, the English Revolution was fought not just to protect the rights of property (in the narrow sense) but to establish those liberties which liberals believed essential to human dignity and moral worth. The "rights of man" enumerated in the English Bill of Rights gradually were proclaimed beyond the boundaries of England, notably in the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 and in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024130317/http://www.ait.org.tw/infousa/zhtw/DOCS/Demopaper/dmpaper2.html|archive-date=24 October 2014}}</ref> Economic historians [[Douglass North]] and [[Barry R. Weingast|Barry Weingast]] have characterized the institutions implemented in the Glorious Revolution as a resounding success in terms of restraining the government and ensuring protection for property rights.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=North|first1=Douglass C.|last2=Weingast|first2=Barry R.|date=1989|title=Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England|journal=The Journal of Economic History|volume=49|issue=4|pages=803–832|doi=10.1017/S0022050700009451|s2cid=3198200|issn=1471-6372}}</ref>
[[File:John Locke.jpg|thumb|200px|upright|[[John Locke]] expanded on [[Thomas Hobbes]]'s [[social contract theory]] and developed the concept of [[natural rights]], the [[Right to property|right to private property]] and the principle of [[consent of the governed]]. His ideas form the ideological basis of [[liberal democracy|liberal democracies]] today.]]
Renewed interest in the Magna Carta, the English Civil War, and the Glorious Revolution in the 17th century prompted the growth of [[political philosophy]] on the British Isles. [[Thomas Hobbes]] was the first philosopher to articulate a detailed [[social contract theory]]. Writing in the ''[[Leviathan (Hobbes book)|Leviathan]]'' (1651), Hobbes theorized that individuals living in the [[state of nature]] led lives that were "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" and constantly waged a [[Bellum omnium contra omnes|war of all against all]]. In order to prevent the occurrence of an anarchic state of nature, Hobbes reasoned that individuals ceded their rights to a strong, authoritarian power. In other words, Hobbes advocated for an absolute monarchy which, in his opinion, was the best form of government. Later, philosopher and physician [[John Locke]] would posit a different interpretation of social contract theory. Writing in his ''[[Two Treatises of Government]]'' (1689), Locke posited that all individuals possessed the inalienable rights to life, liberty and estate (property).<ref name="Locke-Laslett1988">{{cite book|title=Two Treatises of Government|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, NY|first=John|last=Locke|author-link=John Locke|editor-first=Peter|editor-last=Laslett|at=[https://archive.org/details/twotreatisesofgo00john/page/ Sec. 87, 123, 209, 222]|year=1988|orig-year=1689|isbn=978-0-521-35448-6|url=https://archive.org/details/twotreatisesofgo00john/page/}}</ref> According to Locke, individuals would voluntarily come together to form a state for the purposes of defending their rights. Particularly important for Locke were property rights, whose protection Locke deemed to be a government's primary purpose.<ref>Locke, John. ''Two Treatises on Government: a Translation into Modern English''. Quote: "Government has no other end, but the preservation of property. [https://books.google.com/books?id=d_4BGe7-pFIC&pg=PR9 There is no practical alternative to majority political rule %E2%80%93 i.e., to take the consent of the majority as the act of the whole and binding every individual." Google Books].</ref> Furthermore, Locke asserted that governments were [[legitimacy (political)|legitimate]] only if they held the [[consent of the governed]]. For Locke, citizens had the [[right of revolution|right to revolt]] against a government that acted against their interest or became tyrannical. Although they were not widely read during his lifetime, Locke's works are considered the founding documents of [[liberalism|liberal]] thought and profoundly influenced the leaders of the [[American Revolution]] and later the [[French Revolution]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Curte|first1=Merle|date=1937|title=The Great Mr. Locke: America's Philosopher, 1783–1861|journal=The Huntington Library Bulletin|issue=11|pages=107–151|jstor=3818115|issn=1935-0708}}</ref> His liberal democratic framework of governance remains the preeminent form of democracy in the world.

In the Cossack republics of Ukraine in the 16th and 17th centuries, the [[Cossack Hetmanate]] and [[Zaporizhian Sich]], the holder of the highest post of [[Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks|Hetman]] was elected by the representatives from the country's districts.

In North America, representative government began in [[Jamestown, Virginia]], with the election of the [[House of Burgesses]] (forerunner of the [[Virginia General Assembly]]) in 1619. English Puritans who migrated from 1620 established colonies in New England whose local governance was democratic;<ref>[[Alexis de Tocqueville|Tocqueville, Alexis de]] (2003). [[Democracy in America]]. Barnes & Noble. pp. 11, 18–19. {{ISBN|978-0-7607-5230-2}}.</ref> the hard power of these local assemblies [[Salutary neglect|varied greatly throughout]] the [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial time period]] however officially they held only small amounts of devolved power, as ultimate authority belonged to the Crown and Parliament. The [[Puritans]] ([[Pilgrim Fathers]]), [[Baptists]], and [[Quakers]] who founded these colonies applied the democratic organisation of their congregations also to the administration of their communities in worldly matters.<ref>[[Allen Weinstein]] and David Rubel (2002), ''The Story of America: Freedom and Crisis from Settlement to Superpower'', DK Publishing, Inc., New York, {{ISBN|978-0-7894-8903-6}}, p. 61</ref><ref>Clifton E. Olmstead (1960), ''History of Religion in the [[United States]]'', Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, pp. 63–65, 74–75, 102–05, 114–15</ref><ref>Christopher Fennell (1998), [http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/ccflaw.html ''Plymouth Colony Legal Structure''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120429000512/http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/ccflaw.html |date=29 April 2012 }}</ref>