People's Representation Quotes
This quotation had a close proximity to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (see linked quote). Although this was probably Lincoln's most famous line, it was not totally original. John Adams came close in a 1774 proclamation (see linked quote). As did John Marshall in his McCulloch v. Maryland decision (see linked quote). There was also Thomas Cooper in 1795 (see linked quote). But the earliest close phrase use appears to be the English cleric, John Wycliffe, in 1382 (see linked quote). It is not known with which of these Lincoln was familiar.
The issue of whether the military has any rights per se in a democracy or is an institution established and controlled by the people is one that separates many countries today. In one philosophy—held by America and most industrial democracies—the military is completely subservient to and under the control of the people and their government. The other view held by many societies controlled by the military is that the military is a subset of the people with specific rights granted to it. In some countries the military can name representatives, can veto legislation and are considered a faction just like political parties. See China, Turkey, Argentina, and Indonesia for examples of the latter view.
RSD Party platform. The Russian Social Democratic Party was in 1887 a very modern democratic party inside the feudalism of Tsarist Russia. The Tsar and the nobility thought them wild radicals and yet their party platform was not only reasonable, but in large part influenced by the American Constitution, Bill of Rights, and then current practices in America. It is hard to believe but at the time a Russian could not work at an occupation he chose but could only do the work that was permitted by the aristocrat who owned the land he lived on. The Tsar, Alexander III, was a terrible autocrat, unlike his father who had desired some reform and abolished serfdom. All efforts at any kind of Democratic reform were put down, and Russian reformers in this party tended to split between those who still hoped for reform and those who saw violent revolution as the only hope. By 1906 the party which had no success at any of their planks of reform had split into two main subgroups—the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks—both active revolutionary groups, but the Mensheviks tended to be more democratic and moderate and wanted to include the workers and the middle class whereas the Bolsheviks saw the middle class as part of the problem and argued for a more radical political structure. The real split occurred after the 1917 revolution when the Mensheviks lost popularity among the Russian revolutionists as not being radical or realistic enough in what it would take to transform Russia. The Bolsheviks gained control and by 1921, they had outlawed and purged the Menshevik party. That was the last hope of democracy in Russia, as the Bolsheviks model was that which guided the country until the fall of the Soviet Union.
At the time, the House of Lords which was made up of aristocrats who inherited their titles and the Lords could undo any legislation that was passed by the House of Commons. This gave the aristocrats of England a veto on all legislation.
