PART III.

From revolutions around the world to republican democracy in the United States

            The establishment of universal male suffrage in France in 1848 was an important milestone in the history of democracy. In the Americas, democracy had a rocky, uneven start. Here is a much abbreviated timeline:

• 1791: The Haitian Revolutiona successful slave revolution, established a free republic.
• 1792: Local elections were instituted in Freetowncolony in December,  1792, in which Nova Scotian immigrants could elect tything-men and hundredors.
  • The United Kingdom; In 1807: The Slave Trade Actbanned the trade across the British Empire after which the U.K. established the Blockade of Africa and enacted international treaties to combat foreign slave traders, which necessitated serious changes in how slavery could be conducted in the British colonies of America.
  • September 24, 1810: Opening session of the Cortes of Cádiz, with representatives of all Spanish provinces, including those in America abolished slavery throughout Spanish territories.
    • 1832: The passing of the Great Reform Act, which gave representation to previously under represented urban areas in the UK and extended the voting franchise to a wider population. Followed later in the 19^th century and 20^th century with several further Reform Acts which moved ever closer to actual democracy.
    • 1833: The Slavery Abolition Actwas passed, which took effect across the British Empire.
    • 1848: Universal male suffrage was re-established in France in March of that year, in the wake of the French Revolution of 1848.
    • 1848: Following the French, the widespread Revolutions of 1848—although in many instances forcibly put down—did result in several democratic constitutions in other European countries, including the German States, the Netherlands, and Denmark.
    • 1850s: The secret ballot was first introduced in Australia in 1856, in 1872 in the UK, and not until 1892 in the US. The notion of a secret ballot–where one is entitled to the privacy of their votes–is taken for granted by most today by virtue of the fact that it is simply considered the norm. However, this practice was highly controversial in the 19^th century; it was widely argued that no man would want to keep his vote secret unless he was ashamed of it.
    • 1856: Property ownership requirements were eliminated in all states of the USA resulting in suffrage for all adult white males. However, the voting requirements of tax paying remained in five states until into the 20^th
    • 1870: In the US, the 15^th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits voting rights discrimination on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of slavery, a positive, but woefully incomplete move forward to actual democracy.
    • 1893: New Zealand became the first nation to allow universal suffrage by awarding the voting privilege to women—17 years after male suffrage was put into place.
    • 1894: South Australia became the first place in the first country to allow women to stand for election to parliament. Three years before ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, on August 18, 1920, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman in the US Congress, to serve in the House of Representatives. French women got the right to vote in 1944 but did not actually cast their ballot for the first time until April 29, 1945.
    • 1905: The Persian Constitutional Revolution became the first parliamentary system in the middle east.
    • 1911: The UK Parliament Act restricted the upper house from obstructing legislation from the elected lower house.
    • 1918: The United Kingdom granted the women over 30–who met a property qualification–the right to vote, a second grant was later passed in 1928 allowing women and men equal rights.

The end of the First World War (1914-1918) was a temporary victory for democracy in Europe; because it was preserved in France and temporarily extended to Germany. However, in 1906, full modern democratic rights–universal suffrage for all citizen–was implemented constitutionally in Finland as well as a proportional representation—an open list system. Even in Russia, the February Revolution in 1917 inaugurated a few months of liberal democracy. The terrible economic consequences of the Great Depression hurt democratic forces in many countries. The 1930s became a decade of dictators in Europe and Latin America promising an end to the poverty with populist dictatorships.

Japan had moved towards democracy during the Taishō period during the 1920s, but it was under effective military rule in the years before and during World War II. The country adopted a new constitution during the postwar Allied occupation, with initial elections in 1946.

The aftermath of World War II also resulted in the United Nations’ decision to partition the British Mandate into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel declared independence and thus was born the first full democracy in the Middle East. Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system and universal suffrage surrounded by theologically and autarchic anti-democracy nations.

The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted full US citizenship to America’s indigenous peoples, called “Indians” in the Act. It is a bit complicated. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to persons born in the US, but only if “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” which; effectively excludes certain indigenous people. The act further enfranchised the rights of peoples resident within the boundaries of the United States, an advancement of democracy, and an attempt to extend it fairly and universally, if still somewhat incomplete.

The United States of America passed the all-important, but still having detractors–Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act to enforce the 15^th Amendment of 1870 which had been widely flaunted and circumvented, especially in the states of the old Confederate South. The 24^th Amendment ended poll taxing by removing all taxes placed upon voting, which was a technique commonly used to restrict the African American vote. The Voting Rights Act also granted voting rights to all Native Americans, irrespective of their home state. The minimum voting age was reduced to 18 by the 26^th Amendment in 1971 to recognize the de facto adulthood of young working adults and to extend the opportunities to learn about and to practice democracy for the coming generations.

Much of Eastern Europe, Latin America, East and Southeast Asia, and several Arab, central Asian and African states, and the not-yet-state that is the Palestinian Authority, moved towards greater liberal democracy in the 1990s and 2000s.

In Asia, Myanmar [earlier known as Burma], the ruling military junta in 2011 made changes to allow certain voting-rights and released a prominent figure in the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest. However, the government did not allow Suu Kyi to run for election, too great a step away from their autocratic, military backed dictatorship. Conditions partially changed with the election of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party and her appointment as the de facto leader of Myanmar with the title “state councilor”, since she is still not allowed to become president and therefore leads through a figurehead, Htin Kyaw. Human rights, however, have not improved; and the civilian government lacks the power to ensure them or real democracy.

In Bhutan, in December, 2005, the 4th King Jigme Singye Wangchuck announced that the first general elections would take place in 2008, and that he would abdicate the throne in favor of his eldest son. That actually happened and Bhutan is currently undergoing further changes to allow for a constitutional monarchy based on example from Europe and pointing towards a truly democratic nation.

In the Maldives—a small Country in South Asia, protests and political pressure led to a government reform which allowed democratic rights and presidential elections in 2008. These were however undone by a coup in 2018.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, military juntas twice overthrew democratically elected governments and in 2014, changed the constitution in order to increase their own power. The authoritarian regime of Hun Sen in Cambodia dissolved the main opposition party [Cambodia National Rescue Party] in 2017 and effectively implemented a one-man dictatorship. With the domination of the south pacific region by the PRC [Peoples Republic of China], a communist state ruled by a tough and uncompromising dictator Xi Jinping, democracy was a hard-won and fleeting thing.

The critical historical juncture catalyzed by the resurrection of democratic ideals and institutions fundamentally transformed the ensuing centuries and has dominated the international landscape since the dismantling of the final vestige of the empire following the end of the Second World War, albeit imperfectly.

Not everything is quite so rosy as the century moves on.