History of Democracy

By Too Young To Vote
  • 508 BCE

    First Democracy Ever

    First Democracy Ever
    In 508 BCE Cleisthenes changed the Athenian government to a democracy. People could choose their ruler and vote on important issues. Their democracy had two parts. First the Assembly where people meet every ten days to vote on things like policing and going to war. Second was a Council made of about five hundred citizens (women, slaves and foreigners were not citizens) picked by lottery who were in charge of all the policies and were voted on by the Assembly. This was the first ever democracy.
  • 1215

    First Attempt at limiting Monarch's Power in England

    First Attempt at limiting Monarch's Power in England
    The Magna Carta established many new ideas which have been used around the world since it was first presented. It inspired the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As well as limiting the power of rulers the it also introduced the ideas of lawful process, fair trails, the idea of a jury and that people who pay taxes should have representation in government.Even with the Magna Carta's influence in history, within months of its signing the king and the barons were at war.
  • 1215

    First Attempt at limiting Monarch's Power in England Continued

    First Attempt at limiting Monarch's Power in England Continued
    In 1215 a very famous and important document called the Magna Carta was signed. At the time England had a feudal system and the king’s word was law. The current King (King John) was having a conflict with his barons (men with money and power) over his excessive and random taxes. When he signed the Magna Carta he agreed that even though he was a king he was not above the law. This meant that future kings wouldn't have so much power and had to rule within the limits of the laws.

  • The First Successful attempt to Limit Monarch's Power in England

    The First Successful attempt to Limit Monarch's Power in England
    The Case of Proclamations in 1610 was a court decision during the reign of King James VI and I (1603-1625). The court made limits on the Royal Prerogative and said that the Monarch could make laws only through Parliament. The King (James 1) wanted to make certain activities illegal as he found them against the law. This made people question whether or not the monarch could change existing laws without consent from parliament.

  • The First Successful attempt to Limit Monarch's Power in England Continued

    The First Successful attempt to Limit Monarch's Power in England Continued
    In 1610 the Chief Justice of Common Pleas determined that the king did not have legal power to make new laws or offences without the parliament's consent. They concluded this because making new laws are big decisions and take lots of consideration so they should be handled by parliament and not just by one person. Sir Coke famously said “the King hath no prerogative but that which the law of the land allows him”.

  • First Ever Secret Ballot

    First Ever Secret Ballot
    The secret ballot was first used in Australia starting in 1856 after it was used in a election in Tasmania on February 7th, 1856 and was soon made law throughout Australia. They used voting booths and secret ballots generally have four rules.They had to be an official ballot being printed at public expense, the names of all the nominated candidates of all parties had to appear, they had to be distributed only at the polling place, and they had to be marked in secret.

  • First American Secret Ballot

    First American Secret Ballot
    In the US before 1890 they didn't give you a ballot at the voting booth, you could get a copy of a ballot already filled out from the local papers which had certain candidates that they favoured. All the states replaced these in 1890 with secret ballots that followed the same rules and system as the Australian secret ballots. People called these “Australian ballots” because this way of voting and having a secret ballot was first used in Australia.

  • First Country to give Women The Right to Vote

    First Country to give Women The Right to Vote
    In 1893 New Zealand became the first country ever to officially let all women vote (some other countries let some women vote before if they owned land or had a certain skin colour). After this most countries around the world also gave women the right to vote in the following years.

  • First time American Poll Taxes were Banned

    First time American Poll Taxes were Banned
    Some states in the US used to have something called poll taxes, which anyone who wanted to vote had to pay in order for their vote to be counted. The poll taxes targeted those who were poor and couldn't afford to vote. The poll tax was usually between $1.50 and $1.75 which was a lot of money back then. However in 1964 congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which banned discrimination based on race, national origin, religion and sex and this was the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • First Democratically Directly elected Female President.

    First Democratically Directly elected Female President.
    Vigdís Finnbogadóttir born on April 15 1930 served as the fourth President of Iceland from August 1 1980 to 1996. She was the world's first democratically directly elected female president.

  • First democratically elected leader to give birth while in office

    First democratically elected leader to give birth while in office
    Benazir Bhutto had a daughter in 1990 while she was Prime Minister of Pakistan. She also had a son in 1988 while she was campaigning for office, and her opponents were very surprised because they assumed because she was pregnant she couldn't continue in politics. Benazir Bhutto was criticized because people felt she could not run the country properly if she had another baby.

  • First democratically elected leader to give birth while in office in the 21st century

    First democratically elected leader to give birth while in office in the 21st century
    On June 21, 2018 Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, had a daughter and became the second ever democratically elected leader to give birth while in office and the first in the 21st century. Jacinda Ardern was accepted and encouraged to continue in politics while in 1990 people thought Benazir Bhutto couldn't continue with politics because she had a daughter and was criticized for having a baby while in office.

  • First Federal election in Canada that I will be able to vote in continued

    First Federal election in Canada that I will be able to vote in continued
    According to the current schedule there will be an election on Monday October 21, 2019. The next election would be on Monday October 16th, 2023. I will turn 18 on Feb. 11, 2024, so the first time I should get to vote in a federal election in Canada is on Monday October 18, 2027, assuming nothing happens to cause an election to be called early before then.

  • First Federal election in Canada that I will be able to vote in

    First Federal election in Canada that I will be able to vote in
    In 2007 the government of Canada made a law that created set election dates. Before that the Prime Minister could call a election any time they wanted to as long as they didn't wait more than 5 years. So they'd try to call an election when things were going well and they thought their party would win. The new rule says that elections should happen on the 3rd Monday of October in the 4th year after the previous election.There's also certain special situations when the PM can/must call a election.