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While wars today are fought in the name of democracy as if democracy were a moral ideal as well as an easily identifiable government style, it is not really that black and white. The inventors of democracy were the Greeks who lived in small city-states called poleis. Contact with the wide world was slower. Life lacked modern conveniences. Voting machines were primitive, at best. The people -- the ones who put the demo- in democracy -- were intimately involved in decisions that affected them and would be appalled that bills to be voted on now require reading through thousand-page tomes. They might be even more aghast that people actually vote on those bills without doing the reading.Democracy [demos ~= the people; cracy >kratos = strength/rule, so democracy = rule by the people] is considered an invention of the ancient Athenian Greeks. This page on Greek democracy brings together articles on the stages democracy went through in Greece, as well as the controversy Greek democracy caused, with passages from period thinkers on the institution of democracy and its alternatives.While there is no specific, universally accepted definition of 'democracy',[6] equality and freedom have both been identified as important characteristics of democracy since ancient times.[7] These principles are reflected in all citizens being equal before the law and having equal access to legislative processes. For example, in a representative democracy, every vote has equal weight, no unreasonable restrictions can apply to anyone seeking to become a representative, and the freedom of its citizens is secured by legitimized rights and liberties which are generally protected by a constitutionThere are several varieties of democracy, some of which provide better representation and more freedom for their citizens than others.[10][11] However, if any democracy is not structured so as to prohibit the government from excluding the people from the legislative process, or any branch of government from altering the separation of powers in its own favor, then a branch of the system can accumulate too much power and destroy the democracy.[12][13][14] Representative Democracy, Consensus Democracy, and Deliberative Democracy are all major examples of attempts at a form of government that is both practical and responsive to the needs and desires of citizens.

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