Editing Democratization (section)

=== United Kingdom ===
[[File:Magna Carta (British Library Cotton MS Augustus II.106).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Magna Carta in the British Library. The document was described as "the chief cause of Democracy in England".]]
In Great Britain, there was [[Magna Carta#17th–18th centuries|renewed interest in Magna Carta]] in the 17th century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=From legal document to public myth: Magna Carta in the 17th century |url=https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/videos/from-legal-document-to-public-myth-magna-carta-in-the-17th-century |access-date=2017-10-16 |website=The British Library |postscript=none |archive-date=2017-10-18 |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 |title=Magna Carta: Magna Carta in the 17th Century |url=https://www.sal.org.uk/events/2015/06/magna-carta-magna-carta-in-the-17th-century/ |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=2018-09-25 |access-date=2017-10-16 |website=The Society of Antiquaries of London }}</ref> The [[Parliament of England]] enacted 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 |access-date=7 April 2015 |publisher=The National Archives}}</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 |access-date=22 December 2016 |publisher=The British Library |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 [[Stuart Restoration|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. The [[Glorious Revolution]] in 1688 established a strong Parliament that passed the [[Bill of Rights 1689]], which codified certain rights and liberties for individuals.<ref>{{cite web |title=Britain's unwritten constitution |url=http://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/britains-unwritten-constitution |access-date=27 November 2015 |publisher=British Library |quote=The key landmark is the Bill of Rights (1689), which established the supremacy of Parliament over the Crown.... The Bill of Rights (1689) then settled the primacy of Parliament over the monarch's prerogatives, providing for the regular meeting of Parliament, free elections to the Commons, free speech in parliamentary debates, and some basic human rights, most famously freedom from 'cruel or unusual punishment'. |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208232341/http://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/britains-unwritten-constitution |url-status=dead }}</ref> It set out the requirement for regular parliaments, free elections, rules for freedom of speech in Parliament and limited the power of the monarch, ensuring that, unlike much of the rest of Europe, [[Absolute monarchy|royal absolutism]] would not prevail.<ref>{{cite web |title=Constitutionalism: America & Beyond |url=http://www.ait.org.tw/infousa/zhtw/DOCS/Demopaper/dmpaper2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024130317/http://www.ait.org.tw/infousa/zhtw/DOCS/Demopaper/dmpaper2.html |archive-date=24 October 2014 |access-date=30 October 2014 |publisher=Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), U.S. Department of State |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.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Rise of Parliament |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/rise_parliament/citizenship2.htm |access-date=2010-08-22 |publisher=The National Archives}}</ref> Only with the [[Representation of the People Act 1884]] did a majority of the males get the vote.