Giving the ancient Greeks credit for modern democracy is baseless. In some of the ancient Greek city states democracy prevailed at least some of the time among the people who qualified to vote. More times than not, however, real power and decision making was in the hands of someone, not unlike the “philosopher king” of Plato’s Republic. This was particularly true in times of crisis and war, which was often the case.
We must recognize that the concept and appeal of democracy to the masses was strong in many places. Educated people, who were a small percentage of the population, from the Renaissance in the fourteenth century onward were steeped in classical Greeks and Romans thinkers and literature. A classics based education remained the norm for the American Founding Fathers and their educated brethren of the Enlightenment movement in Europe. They were aware, therefore, of the role legislatures played in creating laws in antiquity, again, except in times of dire crisis.
Democracy became ensconced in Europe and America, however, as a result of actions by Calvinists on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. They established micro and macro models for their concept of representative government by political and military success. Their inspiration was not from the Greeks and Romans but from John Calvin’s observations on the governance of the early Christian congregations. Those congregations governed themselves in all respects from choosing and disciplining their membership to selecting deacons, elders and pastors. Calvin and his followers concluded that form of governance conformed to God’s desire.
While Calvin endorsed Jesus’ dictum to “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and render unto God that which is God’s”, he ultimately did not believe there should be a “Caesar” but an elected government to administer the state. If this is true “Caesar” was the government of a society. That government should, however, be composed of Christians, who would assure that all laws conformed to Christian beliefs and practices. His was a Presbyterian system of church government, which installed a hierarchy of local, regional, provincial and national synods which at all levels were elected among Christians. There was also provision for an international synod.
Such an outlook could not embrace or accept secular government under kings or Church government by Popes and their ecclesiastical hierarchy. Their activist approach to achieve their goals was amazingly successful. They defeated Spain, the mightiest state in the world, to establish the Calvinist Dutch Republic, which became the wealthiest nation in the world. The Calvinist Huguenots kept France embroiled for decades and received many concessions. They overthrew Mary, Queen of Scots, and establish their Kirk (church) in Scotland. They gained a majority among the Seven Electors in the Holy Roman Empire, which governed most of Central Europe. Calvinist desires were central to the prolongation of the Thirty Years War from 1618 to 1648.
Their influence in establishing constitutional government in England is inestimable. Suffice it to mention here that they their fervent advocacy lead to significant laws in England in the first forty years of the seventeenth century. Their dissatisfaction with those changes lead to a decade of civil war, which ultimately resulted in the execution of King Charles I and the dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell, a Calvinist, albeit he rejected a Presbyterian form of religious government. The restoration of monarchy and the Church of England in 1660 under Charles II was far from a total defeat of Calvinism, as they gained significant concessions, which became more pronounced in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Calvinism in America, in the more recognizable term of Puritanism, permeated New England and provided a microcosm model for national representative government.
Belief in a “social contract” had increased appeal in the second half of the seventeenth century in no small part for the Calvinist weakening of the traditional allegiance to monarchies and Popes. It is notable that this revolutionary concept of the American and French revolutions did not spring directly from the Greek and Roman classics, but from the recently developed belief in “Natural Law”. Space does not permit further development of this outlook, but the Calvinists had aroused beliefs and provided alternative concepts of government that spread the idea of representative government and proved it was practical.
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