The challenge to democracy I. Democracy on trial

One of the simplest and best ways to discover the meaning of democracy is through what great men have said about it. The English barons who secured the Magna Charta were aristocrats, but they prized one element in democracy when they demanded government according to law in place of arbitrary action by the king. The authors of the Declaration of Independence defined democracy as a government deriving its just powers “from the consent of the governed.” To the framers of the Constitution of the United States it meant “to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty” for themselves and their descendants. The objective of the leaders of the French Revolution was “ liberty, equality and fraternity.