Page 91 - 1957

Intermediat8 Essay - Second Democracy
Of all.the words in the English language, there is one , perhaps one of the. most w..:.dely knownll which is also
the most difficult to definea This word is "democracy"a The dictionary states, "Democracy is government by the peoplep and the state in which this prevails"a This is an .apt definition v yet there are still whole countries in the world which do not recognize this word or which..have not been able to apply it when describing themselvesa
Why is this so?
Many years ago~ in the centuries BQ Co, the Greeks
thought that they knew the answero They felt that~ in order to have a democracy,the people of the land (that
is ~ of Athens jl the nlace at which the experiment took place ) must do the ~~lingo Accordingly~ they made it possible for everyone to serve at least one term t~ a public officea Howeverj) they would not extend these priv- ileges to other cities p and the ideal of democracy was besmirched in that lan~o Then 9 the Romans grew t hought- ful under the Greek influence and tried different methods of governmento For all the strif'"e between the classes and
the corruption of the holders of public offices~ the'ir mode of government well survived the discord forever swirling about ito
From then on~ as the Greeks and Romans passed their ideas and theories from generation to generation, and
country to country9 these conceptions of true democracy were · altered greatlyo At first9 the persons who tried to define
or apply democracy were educated people of authority~ Then~
as these individuals gained in influence through the years and down the centuries9 gradually more of the so-called peasants were able to accept and enlarge these opinionso
Manv struggles were fought J.n many countries before democr- acy could even begin its uncertain growth through the hard crust of human greed for riches and powero
Xn modern times~ the practice 8f democracy is wid~­ spreado Of course, in spite of the fact that many countries have fought civil warsi ·elected presidents and called them- selves republics9 there are not very many actual democraciese The kind or democracy which has stood the test of time is
not a state which w·as brought in by force and kept in power
by forcea Countries such as Canada~ the United States, and Britain~ had to fight long 9 bloody wars before t heir resp-. ective governments could truly be called democratic; but in all three instances, the people were ready to rule themselves. Thus~ the unhappy condition of a dictatorship has never
wrought. havoc in these ''go~·ernments a With these exa~ples for the world to' follow 9 i t; is no great surprise t.hat other countries should wish for the same serene constitutiona
Civilization has many benefitso Democracy is one of thema If the man on the street of an Iron Curtain country were asked if he knew the meaning,of democracy, he might not know the answer.fieyonq a pett~. ideology concerning the Soviet Government a · Howeverf) if ~tne man on the street i n
;~_;;