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effectively transplanted to the United States, and in the nineteenth century it evolved there in an increasingly democratic direction. The
American variant propagated in due course to Latin America, but meanwhile in Europe there was a general revival of the representative assembly based principally on the English model. France revived its Estates General in the wake of its revolution. Later, after the disintegration of the empire of Napoleon Bonaparte, assemblies re-emerged in Sweden, the Netherlands, France and Spain. The British Empire especially at the time of its dismantlement in the twentieth century was instrumental in spreading parliamentary democracy far and wide, and in modern times the immense international influence of the United States has encouraged the spread of representative democracy worldwide.
77:, more specifically in the twelfth to fifteenth centuries. It may have been brought into being by rulers determined to avoid being overawed by their powerful warrior barons by appealing to lower ranks of society: lesser landowners, townsmen and clergy. It may be the most important political innovation of the European Middle Ages.
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The representative assembly fell into disuse in many of the more important states of Europe in the seventeenth century. However, it survived in
England, Sweden, Poland, Hungary and many of the German statelets, the southern ones particularly. In the eighteenth century, the English parliament was
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of mediaeval society: typically the church, the nobility, and the rest of society. Sometimes however (as in Spain and
Portugal) the gentry or lesser nobility formed a separate order; sometimes (as in Sweden) the richer peasantry did likewise. The English parliament, which was to be an important
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is a political institution in which a number of persons representing the population or privileged orders within the population of a state come together to debate, negotiate with the executive (originally the king or other ruler) and legislate. Examples in
English-speaking countries are the
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In more modern times, the supremacy of the lower chamber became normal, so did the organisation of representatives into competing parties, so did election and an extended franchise, so did the idea that the ministers of the executive should be responsible to it.
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The idea appeared first in Spain, then in
England, France and Italy, then spread to Germany and Scandinavia, even Poland and Hungary. Various names were used for these institutions: in England, Ireland, Scotland, Sicily, the
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in the regions of his bishopric āas it was the custom of our ancestorsā, bringing together churchmen, knights ('milites') and peasants to do justice, in what has been interpreted as a continuation of old Celtic or
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Where forms of representative democracy have spread to countries that already had a tradition of assemblies, a merger of ideas has often taken place and the traditional name has tended to be used. Examples include
61:) also emerged in pre-civilised Germanic and Scandinavian lands (and the modern assemblies in those countries are often named after the originals). However, all of these were
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expressions of democracy, since their members were the people themselves rather than representatives of the people. The idea of an assembly of representatives, a
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Quoting Lord, R. H. (1930): ... this 'development of the representative system and of parliaments' was 'one of the greatest achievements of the Middle Ages'.
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For more details on the state of the institution in the modern world, consult the "See also" list below.
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336:(1st American ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
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The first instance: the councils of LeĆ³n and
Galicia
367:The History of Government from the Earliest Times
283:. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 1024.
281:The History of Government from the Earliest Times
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311:. Madrid: Ediciones Castilla. pp. 164ā165.
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309:Fueros municipales de Santiago y de su tierra
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49:included citizen assemblies (e.g. the Roman
202:local traditions. Later, in 1188, King
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307:LĆ³pez Ferreiro, Antonio (1975).
89:they were called parliaments or
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334:The life and death of democracy
193:ordered a monthly convening of
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171:list of national legislatures
157:in certain Muslim countries,
107:and in the Low Countries the
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378:(three-volume set, hardback)
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37:The classical republics of
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109:estates- or states-general
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71:representative assembly
55:). Popular assemblies (
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279:Finer, Samuel (1997).
191:Santiago de Compostela
23:United States Congress
245:Deliberative assembly
332:Keane, John (2009).
250:Legislative Assembly
173:for more examples.
398:Political systems
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240:National Assembly
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365:(1997):
234:See also
195:councils
187:Diego II
85:and the
67:indirect
47:Carthage
25:and the
212:Galicia
183:Galicia
140:estates
126:riksdag
120:rigsdag
114:landtag
52:comitia
33:History
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154:majlis
96:cortes
63:direct
58:things
39:Greece
266:Notes
200:Suevi
160:jirga
101:corts
372:ISBN
338:ISBN
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216:LeĆ³n
210:and
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166:duma
132:sejm
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