The Road to Political Democracy From Plato to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

by Senelle, Robert; Clément, Emile; Van de Velde, Edgard; Breyer, Stephen; Van Rompuy, Herman

• ISBN13: 9789054878629
• ISBN10: 9054878622
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-04-01
• Publisher: ASP Editions

Summary

Between the seventh and the fifth century BC, the political regime in some city-states in Greece evolved from monarchy to a kind of government by the free citizens, a regime that was called democracy. This book drafts the red line of the growth of democracythrough the enhancement of its four main Aristotelian features: the rule by turn, the rule of law, education, and the role of the middle classand describes and cites the historical milestones in the evolution of the democratic regime. Touching upon on all of the pioneering stages through which political democracy has passed, this account quotes, comments, and highlights the specific importance of the main writings of American, British, French, German, Greek, and Roman philosophers, economists, jurists, and sociologists, and provides an overview of the principal declarations and international treaties on human rights.

Author Biography

Stephen Breyer is a justice of the United States Supreme Court and a former law professor at Harvard Law School. He is the author of Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution. Emile Clément is an honorary director of the Chamber of Representatives of the Belgian Parliament. Robert Senelle is a professor emeritus of public and comparative law at the University of Ghent in Belgium. Edgard Van de Velde is a former associate professor of constitutional, comparative, and European law at the European Superior School for Commerce in Brussels. Herman Van Rompuy is the president of the European Council and a lecturer at the Vlaamse Economische Hogeschool Brussel. He is the former prime minister of the Belgian Federal Government.