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Hello in the Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln called it

Government of the people by the people for the people but the word democracy appears nowhere in the American Constitution

The French Revolution was fought for Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité and the most the Churchill claim for democracy

Was that it was quote the worst form of a government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time

The Athenian city state famously practiced a limited form of participatory democracy

But neither Plato nor Socrates approved the Romans turned their back on the idea of mob rule

And it's not until the 19th century that it becomes even moderately respectable to call oneself a Democrat

So how did democracy rise to become arguably the most cherished form of government in the world today?

In this program we hope to trace the history of an idea across the cultures and centuries of Europe and America in the Middle East and at a time when

Ideals of democracy are being thrown into relief by world events

We hope to gain a greater understanding of where democratic ideals have come from

With me to discuss the origins of democracy is Melissa Lane author of Plato's progeny and University lecture in the history of political thought

David Wooten professor of intellectual history at Queen Mary University of London

Also with the system winter assistant Muslim Chaplin at Cambridge University where his lecture in Islamic Studies

Let's start with you, Melissa Lane in the six-century BC the Athenian city state begins operating its system

And what we look back on and call democracy can you briefly tell us how the system worked and how democratic it was?

Yes, it was a system of

Participation by the male citizens

So there were other people in the state who weren't citizens slaves and foreigners and women had a kind of semi-citizen status

But weren't able to participate in the democracy

...