"Why didn't the USSR stay out of eastern Europe if it was so harmless and weak?
Read Yalta and Potsdam conferences. Do your homework.
USSR was a beaten country after WWII. From the 50s through the 80s there were a number of USSR military and intelligence defectors who claimed that the USSR was a paper tiger i that reserve parts weren't available and the equipment they had was not reliable.
As to European and non European democracies that existed prior to the US version;
en.wikipedia.org
"Local popular institutions
Þorgnýr the Lawspeaker is teaching the Swedish king Olof Skötkonung that the power resides with the people, 1018, Uppsala, by C. KroghMost of the procedures used by modern democracies are very old. Almost all cultures have at some time had their new leaders approved, or at least accepted, by the people; and have changed the laws only after consultation with the assembly of the people or their leaders. Such institutions existed since before the Iliad or the Odyssey, and modern democracies are often derived or inspired by them, or what remained of them. Nevertheless, the direct result of these institutions was not always a democracy. It was often a narrow oligarchy, as in Venice, or even an absolute monarchy, as in Florence.
These early institutions include:
The panchayats in India
The German tribal system described by Tacitus in his Germania.
The Frankish custom of the Marzfeld or "March field".[5]
The Althing, the parliament of the Icelandic Commonwealth, was founded in 930. It consisted of the 39, later 55, goðar; each owner of a goðarð; and membership, which could in principle be lent or sold, was kept tight hold of by each hereditary goði. Thus, for example, when Burnt Njal's stepson wanted to enter it, Njal had to persuade the Althing to enlarge itself so a seat would be available. But as each independent farmer in the country could choose what goði represented him the system could be claimed as an early form of democracy. The Alþing has run nearly continuously to the present day. The Althing was preceded by less elaborate "things" (assemblies) all over Northern Europe.[6]
The Thing of all Swedes, which was held annually at Uppsala in the end of February or early March. Like in Iceland, the assemblies were presided by the lawspeaker, but the Swedish king functioned as a judge. A famous incident took place circa 1018, when King Olof Skötkonung wanted to pursue the war against Norway against the will of the people. Þorgnýr the Lawspeaker reminded the king in a long speech that the power resided with the Swedish people and not with the king. When the king heard the din of swords beating the shields in support of Þorgnýr's speech, he gave in. Adam of Bremen wrote that the people used to obey the king only when they thought he made sense.
The tuatha system in early medieval Ireland. Landowners and the masters of a profession or craft were members of a local assembly, known as a tuath. The members of a tuath were of common descent, although outsiders could be adopted. Each tuath met in annual assembly which approved all common policies, declared war or peace on other tuatha, and accepted the election of a new "king"; normally during the old king's lifetime, as a tanist. The new king had to be descended within four generations from a previous king, so this usually became, in practice, a hereditary kingship; although some kingships alternated between lines of cousins. About 80 to 100 tuatha coexisted at any time throughout Ireland. Each tuath controlled a more or less compact area of land which it could pretty much defend from cattle-raids, and this was divided among its members.
The city-states of medieval Italy, of which Venice and Florence were the most successful, and similar city-states in Switzerland, Flanders and the Hanseatic league. These were often closer to an oligarchy than a democracy in practice, and were, in any case, not nearly as democratic as the Athenian-influenced city-states of Ancient Greece (discussed in the above section), but they served as focal points for early modern democracy.
Veche, Wiec - popular assemblies in Slavic countries. In Poland wiece have developed in 1182 into Sejm - Polish parliament. The veche was the highest legislature and judicial authority in the republics of Novgorod until 1478 and Pskov until 1510.
Rise of parliamentary bodies in other European countries.
Pre-Eighteenth century milestones
Renaissance humanism was a cultural movement in Europe beginning in central Italy (particularly Florence) in the last decades of the 14th century. It revived and refined the study of language (First Latin, and then the Greek language by mid-century), science, philosophy, art and poetry of classical antiquity. The "revival" was based on interpretations of Roman and Greek texts. Their emphasis on art and the senses marked a great change from the medieval values of humility, introspection, and passivity.
The humanist philosophers looked for secular principles on which society could be organized, as opposed to the concentration of political power in the hands of the Church. Prior to the Renaissance, religion had been the dominant force in politics for a thousand years.
Humanists looked at ancient Greece and found the concept of democracy. In some cases they began to implement it (to a limited extent) in practice:
The free election of Augustus II at Wola, outside Warsaw, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in 1697. Painted by Bernardo BellottoIntroduction of the idea that powerholders are responsible to an electorate — Simon de Montfort (1265) (although only landowners were allowed to vote in the 1265 English election)
Rise of Golden Liberty (Nobles' Democracy, Rzeczpospolita Szlachecka) in the Kingdom of Poland and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Nihil novi of 1505, Pacta conventa and King Henry's Articles (1573). See also: Szlachta history and political privileges, Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Organisation and politics of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Rise of democratic parliaments in England and Scotland: Magna Carta (1215) limiting the authority of powerholders, First elected parliament (1265), The Levellers political movement, English Civil War (1642-1651), Habeas Corpus Act (1679), English Bill of Rights and Scottish Claim of Right (1689). See also: other documents listed at the Constitution of the United Kingdom, History of the parliament of the United Kingdom.
William Penn wrote his Frame of Government of Pennsylvania in 1682. The document gave the colony a representative legislature and granted liberal freedoms to the colony's citizens.
[edit] Eighteenth and nineteenth century milestones
1755: The Corsican republic led by Pasquale Paoli with the Corsican Constitution
1760s-1790s Americans develop and apply concept of Republicanism; basis of American Revolution
Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776 (based on the English Bill of Rights)
United States Constitution ratified in 1789 and the new United States Bill of Rights" |
