How Has Democracy Changed Over Time

547 Words3 Pages

History Essay Democracy is not static; it is in fact constantly changing. From the ideas of important philosophers to the ideals of founding documents like the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, democracy has changed in a number of ways. Democracy has evolved for the past two thousand years socially, economically, politically, religiously, and culturally. (1) The Hammurabi Code is one of the first known instances of established laws, which is good in maintaining civilization and preventing wars. This code is set permanently for many legal systems to come and some of it is still used today. (2) On the other hand, the Ten Commandments given from God after the Exodus from Egypt were important to the development of democracy because they were authoritative, consistent, individual, and prohibited. Like the Hammurabi Code, the Ten Commandments were permanent as they were inscribed on stone tablets. In the Old Testament, the …show more content…

This meant that the king no longer had full and absolute power, and the courts were given more authority. (7) The English Bill of Rights was just as important as the Magna Carta because it gave citizens rights that weren 't listed in the Magna Carta. The English Bill of Rights also stopped the monarchs from preventing Protestants from bearing arms, created a standard army and stopped them from imposing fines or punishments without trial. Monarchs could not impose cruel unusual punishments on the citizens or give them excessive bail. This document summed up the powers that Parliament had been seeking since the Petition of Rights in 1628. (8) The Natural Rights was discussed by an enlightened thinker, John

Open Document