Birth and Development of Democracy

Marze Por Gohar ^ | 11/10/03 | SadeghSaleh

[SadeghSaleh]

Source: MPG Subject: Kanoone Sokhan Time 11-14-2003 20:34

Monday November 10, 2003 7:20 PM Reporting from: Kanoone Sokhan, Los Angeles, CA, USA Reported by:Sadegh Saleh of the “Marze Por Gohar Party” at www.marzeporgohar.org Name of the Speaker:Dr. Fazlollah Rohani, Poet and Writer Subject:Birth and Development of Democracy ---------------------------------------

First we start with the meaning of democracy: Demo: People Cracy: Governing We thought that democracy was born in ancient Greece, but in the 20th century, new findings proved that the first democratic system was set in the Summary, Iraq at Bein-al-Nahrein. It was used, because people asked for it and not because of somebody’s ruling. There were three important groups of people influencing this system of each city: 1-The Ruler of the city (Hakem) 2-A Parliament made of experienced and wise men (white bearded) 3-The citizens of the City In 2334 B.C. a Hakem forced to govern all cities under his power, so that the democracy turned into dictatorship. The Democracy in Summary is called “Badvi” and is similar to the “Classic Democracy” of ancient Greece, except in Greece women, children and slaves did not have the right to attend the 3rd above mention group to be heard and since the rest of people either had to work on their farms or were in a war, only %10 -%20 attended this decision making meetings. In Greece wealthy people gave loans to the farmers and because they could not pay the loan back, they became slaves. These problems lead unsatisfied people to stand up, and because the wealthy wanted to avoid rebellions, Solan ordered the slave dealers and the wealthy people to give 1/7 of their wealth to the slaves for 1 year. He also provided them with their own farms. The democracy in Greece did not start in Athena, but in Sparta 600 B.C. The reason for establishment of democracy in Greece was the geographic form of this area. Because Greece was made of islands, which had to exist independently separated from the mainland and each other, it was not possible to build an empire ruling all these isolated areas. In Afflatus’s opinion, one of the Greek Philosophers, because not everybody was allowed to make decisions about his society (like the women and slaves) the system was not democratic, but fascist. The Democracy in the ancient Greece lasted only 200 years. After that, there were no more democratic societies until the 16th, 17th and the 18th Century. What are the problems of changing a system into democracy in countries like Iran or Iraq: -Shortage of people’s education: They do not know what it is or how to handle it. -Poverty: There are things (survival) more important then the system. -No interest in voting Today a lot of countries pretend to be democratic, but not many are.

SADEGH SALEH is a Reporter for Marzeporgohar Party, Iranians for Secular Republic. Long Live Iran