POLSCI 1G06 Lecture 2: 2A - Democracy
24 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Today, democracy is almost universally agreed to be the ideal model for organizing political life. More years have gone by in history without democracy than with it. Since wwi, nearly every country has named itself as a democracy or a democratic state. Even if the country isn"t actually a democracy (china, north korea), they refer to themselves as democratic states. At the end of the cold war, some declared that we had reached the end of history. This sentiment came from the belief that democracy is the best possible model of political organization, along with considerable global peace and growing opportunities for global trade. The word democracy comes from the greek words demos ( people ) and kratos ( rule ). Literally, the word can be translated as the rule of the people. Throughout history and various cultures, democracy has meant different things and has been put into practice in a variety of ways.
