Was the UK the model for all modern democratic countries?
I think this is a really good question. I do think the English probably developed a democratic system of government earlier than most other European countries, we even had a Republic for a short time in the 17th century, although it didn’t last. Switzerland has been a democracy for a very long time I believe, but I don’t really know how their parliament was developed, or how it differed from the English model. I suppose that the British parliament must have influenced the formation of th eAmerican one, since most Americans at that time were of English descent, but i think also most of the founding fathers had a classical education and were probably also influenced by the ideas of Greek democracy. At that time in england, for instance, voting was only confined to a very small number of people, not every free man had a vote, you had to have property valued above a certain amount (of course, voting was restricted in Athens too).
