9781422282779

CHAPTER ONE: FREEDOM OF SPEECH

T he right to express one’s views without fear of government retribution is central to the existence of any credible democracy . Without the guarantee of freedom of expression , a society will lack the knowledge that grows out of an open exchange of ideas. By contrast, an autocracy , where any criticism of the ruling regime is quickly silenced, is the polar opposite of democratic governance. Countries operate along a political continuum, with democracies (such as Australia, Canada, France, Japan, and the United States) at one end, and autocracies (such as Iran, North Korea, and Russia) at the other. In the middle are countries that can move in either direction on the spectrum, depending on the political leadership and circumstances in the country at the time. The history of democracy dates to Classical Greece in the fifth century BCE. Indeed, the term democracy is derived from the Greek words demos (“people”) and kratos (“rule”). All citizens of the city-state of Athens had an opportunity to vote on the central issues of the day. The system was imperfect, as substantial segments of the population (namely, women and slaves) lacked citizenship and voting rights. But it was markedly more democratic than that of Athens’s principal contemporary rival, the autocratic, military-led city-state of Sparta. Democratic values and institutions under the Roman Republic (509–27 BCE) were comparable to those of Classical Greece, with a Senate that included only male citizens. But the Roman Empire (27 BCE–476 CE) was decidedly more autocratic in character. A millennium dominated predominantly by European monarchies (save for Muslim occupation and governance of much of the Iberian Peninsula, where modern Spain and Portugal are located) ensued, setting the stage for the progression of democracy during the Renaissance and Reformation. The birth of liberal democracy can be traced to the European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries. Above all, the Enlightenment represented a rejection A Brief Primer on Democracy

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