The Limits of Democracy and Democratic Thought Unit II: Rise of Democracy

Essential Question What are the inconsistency and limits found in the history of democratic thinking? Does this change your views on democracy in the present?

Pair Activity: Democracy Today Reflecting on what we have learned about democratic thought throughout this unit, do you think all of these ideas have been put in place in our modern democracy? Core Ideas: Greco-Roman Thinkers: Direct Democracy, Indirect Democracy, Rationality and Discussion Abrahamic Traditions: Equality, Tolerance, Caring for the weak/poor Enlightenment: Social Contract, Natural Rights, Justice, Separation of Powers, Free Speech

Lesson Overview Part I: Class Part II: Gender Part III: Race & Slavery

Part I: Class

Class & Democracy All of the thinkers and leaders from this unit were wealthy, many held a deep distrust for “common people.” Many argued that the right to vote should have property, wealth, and/or birth requirements. The poorest people in society rarely had any significant exposure to democratic or Enlightenment ideas. Thinkers who based their ideas on the rights and suffering of the poor did not arise until the mid-19th Century.

The Electoral College Designates “electors” who cast votes for states in presidential elections. Rationale for creating this system was a belief that defense needed to be in place to protect the government from potentially ignorant voters. Some founding fathers even argued that the urban poor and homeless should be ineligible to vote.

Part II: Gender

Women & Democracy Women almost entirely left out of the thinking of most Enlightenment thinkers Most believed women not capable of rational thought and political engagement. In best of cases, women treated legally equivalent to children. At worst, like property. Women did not get the right to vote, hold political office in most countries until the early-mid 1900s.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 C.E.-1797 C.E.) Enlightenment thinker from a middle class family in England. Believed strongly in education for all and the ability of all humans to engage in rational thought. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) Argued women were not just “wives,” but “companions,” equals who also possessed natural rights. Widely considered to be the first work of feminism.

Part III: Race & Slavery

Race & Democracy Like women, few Enlightenment thinkers included non-European peoples when they referred to “citizens.” The co-existence of slavery and Enlightenment thought is difficult to reconcile. Many of the American founding fathers were slave owners, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Even those who argued against slavery did not see non-Europeans as equals.

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835) “These are great evils; and it must be added that they appear to me to be irremediable. I believe that the Indian nations of North America are doomed to perish; and that whenever the Europeans shall be established on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, that race of men will be no more. The Indians had only the two alternatives of war or civilization; in other words, they must either have destroyed the Europeans or become their equals.” “I do not believe that the white and black races will ever live in any country upon an equal footing. But I believe the difficulty to be still greater in the United States than elsewhere. An isolated individual may surmount the prejudices of religion, of his country, or of his race; and if this individual is a king, he may effect surprising changes in society; but a whole people cannot rise, as it were, above itself”

Closing: Essential Question What are the inconsistency and limits found in the history of democratic thinking? Does this change your views on democracy in the present?