Historical accounts of democracy's rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. This book draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer—democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, the book makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished—and when and why they declined—can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future. Drawing from examples spanning several millennia, the book first considers why states developed either democratic or autocratic styles of governance and argues that early democracy tended to develop in small places with a weak state and, counterintuitively, simple technologies. When central state institutions (such as a tax bureaucracy) were absent—as in medieval Europe—rulers needed consent from their populace to govern. When central institutions were strong—as in China or the Middle East—consent was less necessary and autocracy more likely. The book then explores the transition from early to modern democracy, which first took shape in England and then the United States, illustrating that modern democracy arose as an effort to combine popular control with a strong state over a large territory. Democracy has been an experiment that has unfolded over time and across the world—and its transformation is ongoing. Amidst rising democratic anxieties, the book widens the historical lens on the growth of political institutions and offers surprising lessons for all who care about governance.
Author(s): David Stasavage
Series: Princeton Economic History of the Western World
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: xii, 406 pages :
City: Princeton; Oxford
Copyright
Contents
List of Figures
Preface
Part I Early Democracy
1 Origins of Democratic Rule
Early Democracy and Modern Democracy
Origins of Early Democracy
Is Early Democracy an Appropriate Term?
The Autocratic Alternative
Why Europe Was Different
The State Arrived First in China
Islamic Rulers Inherited a State
The Arrival of Modern Democracy
Alternative Visions of Democracy
Political Ideas
Inequality
Economic Development
Democracy’s Future
New Democracies
Persistence of Autocracy
The Future of American Democracy
2 Early Democracy Was Widespread
The Athenian Precedent
Early Democracies outside the Greek World
The Mesopotamian Kingdom of Mari
Republics in Ancient India
The Huron of the Northeastern Woodlands
The Mesoamerican Republic of Tlaxcala
Republicanism in Central Africa
Examples of Early Autocracy
The Third Dynasty of Ur
The Aztec Triple Alliance
The Inkas
Mississippian Chiefdoms
The Azande of Central Africa
A Broader View of Early Democracy and Autocracy
Political Participation
Inequality
Conclusion
3 Weak States Inherited Democracy
What We Mean by a Weak State
Agricultural Suitability and State Formation
Agricultural Variability and Early Democracy
Exit Options and Early Democracy
Circumscription versus Exit
Population Density and Council Governance
Military Democracy: When Rulers Needed Their People
The Bureaucratic Alternative
Origins of Bureaucracy
Conclusion
4 When Technology Undermined Democracy
Understanding and Mapping the Soil
The “Fish Scale” Maps of China
Aztec Soil Glyphs
Europeans Were Late to Understand the Soil
Geometry and the Ability to Survey
Agricultural Techniques
Europeans Lagged in Agricultural Techniques
Why Europe Lagged with Intensive Agriculture
The Importance of Writing
How Writing Started
The Effect of Writing on Early Democracy
Alphabets versus More Complex Systems
Where Europeans Were Ahead: Firearms Technology
Conclusion
Part II The Divergence
5 The Development of Representation in Europe
The Ancient Liberty of the Forest
Tacitus on the Germans
The Marklo Assembly
The Roman Inheritance—Absence of a State
Extensive Agriculture Favored Early Democracy
The Carolingian Attempt at Bureaucratic Rule
The Anglo-Saxon Exception
Quod Omnes Tangit: A Theory of Consent
The Communal Movement: Representation from Below
Rediscovering Aristotle Did Not Produce the Communal Movement
The Impact of the Commercial Revolution
The Absence of a Central State Bureaucracy
A Theory of Political Representation
The Importance of Mandates
Philip the Fair’s Attempt at Autocracy
Philip the Fair’s Assemblies
Philip the Fair Had No State
The Prussian Alternative
Conclusion
6 China as the Bureaucratic Alternative
The Shang Establishment of Autocracy
The Zhou Dynasty and the Mandate of Heaven
Why China Took the Autocratic Route
Early China Was Not a “Hydraulic” Society
High-Yield Agriculture Made a Difference
Creation of a Bureaucracy
A Consensual Route Not Taken
Did Early Chinese Rulers Ever Rely on Assemblies?
Theories of Merit and Abdication
The Significance of the Qin and Han Unification
The Imperial Examination System
China Also Had a Commercial Revolution
Mongol Conquerors Abandoned Their Assembly Tradition
The Ming Restoration
The Qing
Conclusion
7 How Democracy Disappeared in the Islamic World
Early Democracy before Islam
Shura as a Principle of Consultation
The Umayyad Shift to Dynastic Rule
Inheriting a State
The Circle of Justice
The Byzantine Inheritance
Al-Andalus
The Disappearance of Islamic Democracy
The Question of Persistence
8 Democracy and Economic Development over the Long Run
Autocrats Did Well Early but Not Later
China and the Caliphate Were Not the Soviet Union
Possibilities and Perils of Autocracy in China
Power and Prosperity in the Golden Age of Islam
Weak Autocracy and Growth in Europe
Early Democracy and Growth in Europe
Conclusion: The Ambiguous Effects of Democracy
Part III Modern Democracy
9 Why England Was Diferent
The Roman Background
The Hundred and the Shire
Witenagemot
The Normans Inherited a State
Magna Carta Was Not a Big Deal (Initially)
King John’s “Heavy Exactions” Were Not So Heavy
Where England Really Did Pioneer: The Absence of Mandates
Despotism and Good Government under the Tudors
The Two Faces of Parliamentary Supremacy
The First Face of Parliamentary Supremacy: High State Capacity
The Second Face of Parliamentary Supremacy: An Autocratic Executive
England versus the Dutch Republic
England’s Failure to Complete the Transition to Modern Democracy
Conclusion
10 Democracy—and Slavery—in America
Early Colonial Assemblies
Massachusetts
Virginia
Maryland
A Broad (White, Manhood) Suffrage
Origins of American Slavery
Developments Elsewhere in the Americas
Latin America in Comparison
The Case of New France
The Arrival of Modern Democracy in the United States
Representatives Were No Longer Bound by Mandates
Elections Became Less Frequent
The Center Gained the Power to Tax and Wage War
Early Critics of Modern Democracy
Connecting Citizens with a Distant State
Conclusion: The Invention of Modern Democracy
11 The Spread of Modern Democracy
Charting the Spread of Democracy
Democracy Comes to Europe
An Expanding Blaze of Ideas?
Did Europe Democratize Because It Grew Rich?
A Legacy of Weak States
A Legacy of Assemblies and Voting
Expanding the Suffrage: One Man, One Gun, One Vote
Voting Rights for Women
Democracy Posed Less Danger to Elites than Feared
French Peasants: The Original Deplorables
Why Didn’t China Democratize?
No Legacy of Assembly Governance
The Legacy of the Imperial State
A Commercial Revolution Did Not Bring Consensual Government
The Chinese Communist Party Has Repeatedly Referred to Democracy
Russia’s Failure to Democratize
Early Rus sian Assemblies
Building the Bureaucratic Alternative
The World’s Largest Democracy
How Democracy Spread in Africa
The Suns of Independence
A New Wave of Democratization
A Legacy of State Weakness
The Surprising Spread of Modern Democracy
12 The Ongoing Democratic Experiment
The Problem of a Distant State
Maybe James Madison Was Wrong about Large Republics
Distrust and Distant Government
Dealing with Distrust
A Return to Early Democracy?
Fear of a Strong State
The Risk of State Strength in the United States
The Importance of Sequencing
China as the Bureaucratic Alternative
The Reasons for Optimism and Pessimism
Acknowledgments
Notes
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Bibliography
Index
