Editing Democracy (section)

===Middle Ages===
While most regions in [[Europe]] during the [[Middle Ages]] were ruled by [[clergy]] or [[feudal lords]], there existed various systems involving elections or assemblies, although often only involving a small part of the population. In [[Scandinavia]], bodies known as [[Thing (assembly)|things]] consisted of freemen presided by a [[lawspeaker]]. These deliberative bodies were responsible for settling political questions, and variants included the [[Althing]] in [[Iceland]] and the [[Løgting]] in the [[Faeroe Islands]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d2osDwAAQBAJ&q=althing+democracy&pg=PR7|title=On Democracy: Second Edition|last=Dahl|first=Robert A.|date=1 October 2008|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-23332-2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mG7vCgAAQBAJ&q=althing+democracy&pg=PT30|title=Heritage and Identity: Shaping the Nations of the North|last1=Fladmark|first1=J. M.|last2=Heyerdahl|first2=Thor|date=17 November 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-74224-1}}</ref> The [[veche]], found in [[Eastern Europe]], was a similar body to the Scandinavian thing. In the Roman [[Catholic Church]], the [[pope]] has been elected by a [[papal conclave]] composed of cardinals since 1059. The first documented parliamentary body in Europe was the [[Cortes of León of 1188|Cortes of León]]. Established by [[Alfonso IX]] in 1188, the Cortes had authority over setting taxation, foreign affairs and legislating, though the exact nature of its role remains disputed.<ref>{{cite book|last1=O'Callaghan|first1=Joseph F.|title=The Cortes of Castile-León, 1188-1350 |chapter=The Cortes and Taxation |date=1989 |pages=130–151|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |doi=10.9783/9781512819571|jstor=j.ctv513b8x.12|isbn=978-1-5128-1957-1}}</ref> The [[Republic of Ragusa]], established in 1358 and centered around the city of [[Dubrovnik]], provided representation and voting rights to its male aristocracy only. Various Italian city-states and polities had republic forms of government. For instance, the [[Republic of Florence]], established in 1115, was led by the [[Signoria of Florence|Signoria]] whose members were chosen by [[sortition]]. In the 10th–15th century [[Frisian freedom|Frisia]], a distinctly non-feudal society, the right to vote on local matters and on county officials was based on land size. The [[Kouroukan Fouga]] divided the [[Mali Empire]] into ruling clans (lineages) that were represented at a great assembly called the ''Gbara''. However, the charter made Mali more similar to a [[constitutional monarchy]] than a [[democratic republic]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The oldest constitution in the world |url=https://www.jpic-jp.org/en/a/the-oldest-constitution-in-the-world |access-date=2024-10-22 |website=www.jpic-jp.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-09-27 |title=The World Won't Listen: The Mande "Hunters' Oath" and Human Rights in Translation |url=https://humanityjournal.org/issue13-2/the-world-wont-listen-the-mande-hunters-oath-and-human-rights-in-translation/ |access-date=2024-10-22 |website=Humanity Journal |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:Magna Carta (British Library Cotton MS Augustus II.106).jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|[[Magna Carta]], 1215, England]]

The [[Parliament of England]] had its roots in the restrictions on the power of kings written into [[Magna Carta]] (1215), which explicitly protected certain rights of the King's subjects and implicitly supported what became the English writ of [[habeas corpus]], safeguarding individual freedom against unlawful imprisonment with the right to appeal.<ref>{{cite web|title=Magna Carta: an introduction|url=http://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-an-introduction|publisher=The British Library|access-date=28 January 2015|quote=Magna Carta is sometimes regarded as the foundation of democracy in England. ...Revised versions of Magna Carta were issued by King Henry III (in 1216, 1217 and 1225), and the text of the 1225 version was entered into the statute roll in 1297. ...The 1225 version of Magna Carta had been granted explicitly in return for a payment of tax by the whole kingdom, and this paved the way for the first summons of Parliament in 1265, to approve the granting of taxation.|archive-date=23 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423002539/https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-an-introduction|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/citizen_subject/making_history_citizen.htm|title=Citizen or Subject?|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=17 November 2013}}</ref> The first representative national assembly in [[Kingdom of England|England]] was [[Simon de Montfort's Parliament]] in 1265.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jobson|first1=Adrian|title=The First English Revolution: Simon de Montfort, Henry III and the Barons' War|date=2012|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-1-84725-226-5|pages=173–74|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9gHWamp-TLoC}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Simon de Montfort: The turning point for democracy that gets overlooked|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30849472|access-date=19 January 2015|publisher=BBC|postscript=none|date=19 January 2015}}; {{cite news|title=The January Parliament and how it defined Britain|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11355822/The-January-Parliament-and-how-it-defined-Britain.html|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11355822/The-January-Parliament-and-how-it-defined-Britain.html|archive-date=10 January 2022|url-access=subscription|url-status=live|access-date=28 January 2015|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=20 January 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The emergence of [[Parliament of England#Emergence as an institution|petitioning]] is some of the earliest evidence of parliament being used as a forum to address the general grievances of ordinary people. However, the power to call parliament remained at the pleasure of the monarch.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/citizen_subject/origins.htm|title=Origins and growth of Parliament|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=17 November 2013}}</ref>

Studies have linked the emergence of parliamentary institutions in Europe during the medieval period to urban agglomeration and the creation of new classes, such as artisans,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Abramson|first1=Scott F.|last2=Boix|first2=Carles|date=2019|title=Endogenous Parliaments: The Domestic and International Roots of Long-Term Economic Growth and Executive Constraints in Europe|journal=International Organization|volume=73|issue=4|pages=793–837|doi=10.1017/S0020818319000286|s2cid=211428630|issn=0020-8183}}</ref> as well as the presence of nobility and religious elites.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Møller|first=Jørgen|date=2014|title=Why Europe Avoided Hegemony: A Historical Perspective on the Balance of Power|journal=International Studies Quarterly|volume=58|issue=4|pages=660–670|doi=10.1111/isqu.12153}}</ref> Scholars have also linked the emergence of representative government to Europe's relative political fragmentation.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cox|first=Gary W.|date=2017|title=Political Institutions, Economic Liberty, and the Great Divergence|journal=The Journal of Economic History|volume=77|issue=3|pages=724–755|doi=10.1017/S0022050717000729|issn=0022-0507|doi-access=free}}</ref> Political scientist [[David Stasavage]] links the fragmentation of Europe, and its subsequent democratization, to the manner in which the Roman Empire collapsed: Roman territory was conquered by small fragmented groups of Germanic tribes, thus leading to the creation of small political units where rulers were relatively weak and needed the consent of the governed to ward off foreign threats.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Stasavage|first=David|s2cid=14393625|date=11 May 2016|title=Representation and Consent: Why They Arose in Europe and Not Elsewhere|journal=Annual Review of Political Science|volume=19|issue=1|pages=145–162|doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-043014-105648|doi-access=free|issn=1094-2939}}</ref>

In [[Poland]], [[noble democracy]] was characterized by an increase in the activity of the middle [[szlachta|nobility]], which wanted to increase their share in exercising power at the expense of the magnates. Magnates dominated the most important offices in the state (secular and ecclesiastical) and sat on the royal council, later the senate. The growing importance of the middle nobility had an impact on the establishment of the institution of the land ''[[sejm]]ik'' (local assembly), which subsequently obtained more rights. During the fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth century, sejmiks received more and more power and became the most important institutions of local power. In 1454, [[Casimir IV Jagiellon]] granted the sejmiks the right to decide on taxes and to convene a mass mobilization in the [[Nieszawa Statutes]]. He also pledged not to create new laws without their consent.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lukowski|first1=Jerzy|last2=Zawadzki|first2=Hubert|title=A Concise History of Poland|date=January 2019|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-33399-3|edition=3rd}}</ref>