the history of the concept of equality as the basis for the idea of democracy.
John Locke earned his fame by a series of well-organized summaries, and was named as the discoverer and originator of the ideas that civil and political rights are lodged in the people. Locke denied the divine rights of monarchy. His ideas are an assumption about the origin of society: that man in Nature has every right that his individual power allows - no limits, no prohibitions.
but the seeds of democracy were planted before hobbes, locke, locke, or thomas jefferson nurtured them.
the governments of ancient civilizations up to that point were founded on the assumption of natural inequality: that people were merely pawns for the state to use as it saw fit. most philosophers believed that power should belong only to the privileged, who would guide the thoughts and actions of those less equal.
the first major divergences were:
the hebrew republic under moses was possibly the first government in history to allow its people to elect representatives. moses and hammurabi gave us systems of civil law, and the beginnings of what we call equality before the law: one of the basics ideas of democratic society. moses's central governing body was composed of both elected and unelected officials, who governed by consent of the people as given in an oath before their god in which they swore to abide by the judicial code, a very early form of constitutionalism.
the greek city state, which determined to allow the people to make their own laws: a huge differnce from the idea of law coming from god or king.
and rome, briefly, a few centuries later, where a system of law was based on natural law or god's law.
none of these states though, accepted the idea of the equality of all people. their democracies extended only to those of certain classes.
the british isles, where the irish and saxons were influenced by christianity's ideas of equality before god. from those early states we got the idea of trial by jury, habeas corpus, and finally the Magna Carta which affirmed the rights of representation and… private property.
john wycliffe, john calvin, and dozens of other reformation thinkers paved the way for the english bill of rights (1689). just afterward, john locke wrote his Second Treatise on Civil Government, (1690).
other people of the times were pondering ideas of equality. some of them were really forward thinking people, others were giving voice to the spirit of the times, echocing the ideas beginning to form in western society at large. [renaissance] Machiavelli, Thomas Moore, Copernicus, Galileo, Erasmus, Luther, etc., the printing press with was probably the most influential development in the spread of ideas of equality.
Bacon, Newton, Descartes, Spinoza, and montesquieu, who wrote "the spirit of the laws", in 1748, which emphasized ideas of separation of power, and introduced theories for checks and balances in governance. [french revolution] Declaration of the Rights of Man,
http://www.icpd.org/democracy/
to summarize, from the middle east, moses and Hammurabi: limits to government.
England: Magna Carta: limits of kings.
U.S.: Declaration of Independence: freedom from colonialism.
France: Declaration of Human Rights: freedom from oppressive government controls.
history of socialism, communism
in america the popular socialist party was founded at the Unity convention in 1901. this was made possible by a split in the old socialist labor party; the original "social democracy" in which debs and berger broke away from the "utopian colonist" elements of the party, and an even earlier split - including debs and wayland (wayland was appeal to reason 's publisher), from the populist movement which had previously been absorbed by the democratic party.
socialism became a big tent for a hodge-podge of ideas and idealists: many different groups and individuals were finally brought together under it.
the new organization's tent made room for all kinds of people who 'believed' in socialism in general and had their own ideas as to what it meant and about how to go about getting it: from dogmatic ultra-radicalism to christian socialism.
the 'party' was loosely held together by an organizational structure without central control. "states rights" were written into the constitution by a provision for the autonomy of the separate state groups: each group kept the right to handle its own issues, and to advocate its own style of socialism. each lecturer, writer, and organizer, and each individual promoted his or her own ideas of socialism; and the unification stimulated inspiration - the result of which was that the ideology of socialism was challenged and redefined and promoted - and many people accepted it. it was an important time in the development of socialist theories - and in the history of the US: the dissatisfaction that encouraged people to look to socialism as a solution was fueled by a growing awareness of the brutality of capitalism, then in the first stage of 'trustification', crushing everything in its path. workers were exploited, union had yet to win recognition, tenant and mortgaged farmers were losing their land, and small businessmen were pushed to the wall by monopolies, people felt oppressed, and were looking for a means of defense and protest.
by 1912, the party had "more than 1000 of its members elected to political office in 337 towns and cities."[kipnis] the socialist party was radical in its early years. the left wing was strong at the founding convention stronger still at the second convention in 1904. the right wing faction was lead by berger, the milwaukee'slow motion, step at a time municipal reformer, and was a minority. but with the rightwingers in control, the political action was considered to be the "pure and simple" business of getting socialists elected: the party became primarily an electoral machine. just like the dems and repubs are now. having so many different ideas under one tent caused problems - a new left wing came from the struggles resulting and split off becoming the 'communist party'.
Factoid: in 1920 debs received almost 1 million votes in his last campaign although he was in prison.
part of the "main" platform which developed as a result of the discussions at the conventions were: [quoted from eugene v. debs speaks] and end to feudalism - to win the world for democracy and peace, freedom and self-government.
an abolition of the wage system, to destroy industrial despotism, and establish industrial democracy. to abolish class rule and inagurate true freedom and self-government: economic freedom and political equality of working class.
to produce wealth for the use of all instead of the benefit of the few through collective ownership of the means of wealth production and distribution and operation of industry in the interest of all: industry of, by, & for the people.
to grant to women all the rights that men have; to liberate children from child labor - this applied to all humans (women and blacks and chinese, too).
equal rights, equal freedom, equal opportunity for all.
the corporatists decided to incorporate reform, rather than let reform occur chaotically. [(1901) Banker's Magazine: "As the business of the country has learned the secret of combination, it is gradually subverting the power of the politician and rendering him subservient to its purposes…"]
+Socialist Platform of 1928+Herewith the economic planks of the Socialist party platform of 1928, along with an indication in parentheses of how these planks have fared. The list that follows includes every economic plank, but not the full language of each.
1. "Nationalization of our natural resources, beginning with the coal mines and water sites, particularly at Boulder Dam and Muscle Shoals." (Boulder Dam renamed Hoover Dam, and Muscle Shoals are now both federal government projects.)
2. "A publicly owned giant power system under which the federal government shall cooperate with the states and municipalities in the distribution of electrical energy to the people at cost." (Tennessee Valley Authority)
3. "National ownership and democratic management of railroads and other means of transportation and communication." (Railroad passenger service is completely nationalized through Amtrak. Some freight service is nationalized through Conrail.)
4. "An adequate national program for flood control, flood relief, reforestation, irrigation, and reclamation." (Government expenditures for these purposes are currently in the many billions of dollars.)
5. "Immediate governmental relief of the unemployed by the extension of all public works and a program of long range planning of public works ..." (In the 1930s, WPA and PWA were a direct counterpart; now, a wide variety of other programs are.) "All persons thus employed to be engaged at hours and wages fixed by bona-fide labor unions." (The Davis-Bacon and Walsh-Healey Acts require contractors with government contracts to pay "prevailing wages," generally interpreted as highest union wages.)
6. "Loans to states and municipalities without interest for the purpose of carrying on public works and the taking of such other measures as will lessen widespread misery." (Federal grants in aid to states and local municipalities currently total tens of billions of dollars a year.)
7. "A system of unemployment insurance." (Part of Social Security system.)
8. "The nation-wide extension of public employment agencies in cooperation with city federations of labor." (U.S. Employment Service and affiliated state employment services administer a network of about 2,500 local employment offices.)
9. "A system of health and accident insurance and of old age pensions as well as unemployment insurances." (Part of Social Security system.)
10. "Shortening the workday" and "Securing to every worker a rest period of no less than two days in each week." (Legislated by wages and hours laws that require overtime for more than forty hours of work per week.)
11. "Enacting of an adequate federal anti-child labor amendment." (Not achieved as amendment, but essence incorporated in various legislative acts.)
12. "Abolition of the brutal exploitation of convicts under the contract system and substitution of a cooperative organization of industries in penitentiaries and workshops for the benefit of convicts and their dependents." (Partly achieved, partly not.)
13. "Increase of taxation on high income levels, of corporation taxes and inheritance taxes, the proceeds to be used for old age pensions and other forms of social insurance." (In 1928, highest personal income tax rate, 25 percent; in 1978, 70 percent; in 1928, corporate tax rate, 12 percent; in 1978, 48 percent; in 1928, top federal estate tax rate, 20 percent; in 1978, 70 percent.)
14. "Appropriation by taxation of the annual rental value of all land held for speculation." (Not achieved in this form, but property taxes have risen drastically.) source: free to choose
history of fascism
the term fascist comes from an ax, [fasciti] with rods bound around it - to symbolize the state, and 'the people' gathered around its centrality: it can be translated into english as 'union'. it dates at least from the time of constantine - who declared 'christianity' rome's state religion.
at the end of the 1800's the 'fasci siciliani', a union of socialist sulfer miners, had a series of strikes against the bosses, much like the labor strikes in the US during the mid-1800's to the mid-1900's.
italy wasn't the only place to try fascism: most nations incorporate some aspects of fascism as part of the mechanism of control.
history of nationalism