The secret history of democracy

Description

What is so 'Primitive' about 'Primitive democracy'? Comparing the ancient Middle East and Classical Athens / Benjamin Isakhan / Before Athens : early popular government in Phoenicia and Greek city-states / Stephen Stockwell -- Republics and quasi-democratic institutions in ancient India / Steven Muhlberger -- Digging for democracy in China / Pauline Keating -- Behind a veil : Islam's democratic history / Mohamad Abdalla and Halim Rane -- Ideals and aspirations : democracy and law-making in Medieval Iceland / Patricia Pires Boulhosa -- Democratic culture in the early Venetian Republic / Stephen Stockwell -- Africa's Indigenous democracies : The Baganda of Uganda / Immaculate Kizza -- The hunters who owned themselves / Philippe Paine -- Aboriginal Australia and democracy : old traditions, new challenges / Larissa Behrendt -- The pre-history of the Post-Apartheid settlement : non-racial democracy in South Africa's Cape Colony, 1853-1936 / Poppy Fry -- Birthing democracy : the role of women in the democratic discourse of the Middle East / K. Luisa Gandolfo -- The streets of Iraq : protests and democracy since 1945 / John Keane -- Conclusion : democratizing the history of democracy / Benjamin Isakhan and Stephen Stockwell.;This text explores the idea that there was much democracy in human history. It establishes that democracy was developing in the Middle East, India and China before classical Athens, clung on during the 'Dark Ages', was often part of tribal life in Africa, North America and Australia and is developing today in unexpected ways.