• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Democracy Chronicles

Towards better democracy everywhere.

  • AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
  • WORLD DEMOCRACY
  • POLITICAL ART
  • more
    • election technology
    • money politics
    • political dissidents
    • THIRD PARTY
      • third party central
      • green party
      • justice party
      • libertarian party
    • voting methods
  • DC INFO
    • author central
    • about
    • advertise with DC
    • contact
    • privacy policy
You are here: Home / DC Authors / Paine and the Origins of Modern Democracy, Part I

Paine and the Origins of Modern Democracy, Part I

March 15, 2022 by Gary Berton 1 Comment

FacebookLinkedInPinTweet

Thomas Paine is the founder of modern democracy. In word and deed, he crafted the democratic movement in three countries, and it spread on its own around the world.

As a result, he was attacked and marginalized for 200 years, slandered, a victim of the largest dis-information campaign in history. His image and words were actually banned, right up to and including the McCarthy era in America when his books were banned, even the fictional accounts like Citizen Paine by Fast. The pre-eminent founder of America was not recognized as such for literally centuries. But as Paine said, “But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.”

The Thomas Paine National Historical Association was founded to correct this situation. In 1884 in New York City, dozens of leaders of the progressive era came together under this organization to use Paine as the symbol of democratic rights and government. Suffragists, civil rights, free speech, anti-clerical, socialists, anti-monopolists, anti-imperialist, women’s health rights, and more. An organization with Paine’s name on it must have the soul of Paine as it’s engine.

The origin of modern democracy is Common Sense, Paine’s call for revolution against British rule, and in particular, against monarchy itself. No other Whig (the name of progressive leaning political figures back then) endorsed this qualitative leap of ending monarchical government. Paine started it and popularized it among the people. He then followed up with Rights of Man which became the bible of the Age of Democratic Revolution. We cannot discuss the roots and ideology of democracy without Thomas Paine.

Paine is the Democratic Manifesto, his life and works. In 1777, in Philadelphia, in the heat of defeating not only Britain, but also the American Tories, he formed the Whig Society, the first revolutionary party in the world. He followed that up in Paris, in 1791, with the Social Circle, the second revolutionary party in the world. He helped craft the first two truly democratic constitutions in Philadelphia and Paris, the first lasted 14 years before conforming to the new oligarch structures in America, and the second was never implemented due to the counter-revolution in France in 1795. It is worth studying those documents to find the origins of the struggle today.

Do not be confused by the antiquated structures called “democracy” from ancient Greece, where every landed elite sat together and made laws as slaves served them food and drink. Modern democracy could not emerge until the Enlightenment took root, and the political theory of Paine was deeply rooted in it. The emerging new classes coming out of the Dark Ages would contend for dominance. Paine stood with the lower classes where he came from, and never wavered. The very word “democracy”, as we use it today, originated with Paine’s Rights of Man. Before that, “democracy” only referred to the Greek elite government situation described above. But in a way it is still often used in that context today, when we hear oligarchs using it to defend their privileges, while the majority still languishes in need.

Part II will be on the structures of Paine’s democracy.

FacebookLinkedInPinTweet

Filed Under: DC Authors Tagged With: Election History, Founding Fathers, Greece, Political Dissidents, Thomas Paine

Some highlighted Democracy Chronicles topics

Africa American Corruption American Local Elections American State Elections Asia Capitalism and Big Business Celebrity Politics China Democracy Charity Democracy Protests Democrats Dictatorships Education Election History Election Methods Election Security Election Transparency Europe Internet and Democracy Journalism and Free Speech Middle East Minority Voting Rights Money Politics New York City and State Elections Political Artwork Political Dissidents Political Lobbying Redistricting Republicans Russia Socialism and Labor Social Media and Democracy South America Spying and Privacy Supreme Court Third Party Voter Access Voter ID Voter Registration Voter Suppression Voter Turnout Voting Technology Women Voting Rights Worldwide Worldwide Corruption

About Gary Berton

Gary Berton writes for DC from New York. He is President of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association and Associate Editor of the Collected Works of Thomas Paine Project.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. David Anderson says

    March 16, 2022 at 11:28 am

    Paine is probably the most underrated of all the greats.
    D.A.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

democracy chronicles newsletter

american democracy around the web

  • Watch Archived Video of Today’s Safeguarding...
    Source: Election Law Blog Published on: 12 hours ago
  • Fascinating Election Law Issue Raised in Peti...
    Source: Election Law Blog Published on: 12 hours ago
  • “Maine Referendum Spotlights Voting Rights fo...
    Source: Election Law Blog Published on: 13 hours ago
  • PlanScore Updated Through 2022 Elections
    Source: Election Law Blog Published on: 21 hours ago
  • My New One in The Atlantic: “The Supreme Cour...
    Source: Election Law Blog Published on: 21 hours ago