>People seem to forget that democracy and freedom are relatively new to the worl... | Hacker News

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		VladRussian2 on June 14, 2013 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: 57% Fear Government Will Use NSA Data to Harass Po... >People seem to forget that democracy and freedom are relatively new to the world. Democracy was practiced by Greeks 2 thousand years ago. The system of couple of hundred people from the top of society gathered in one room making the decisions for the rest of society hasn't changed since than. And Magna Carta which codified the idea of freedom as a limit on government power is 800 years old.

jivatmanx on June 14, 2013 [–]

Athens was a tiny city-state in a world where every other political. The Roman Republic did get fairly large and lasted a while, however.

After the classical era and prior to WWII the only major democracies were Britain, the U.S. and intermittently, France.

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