The British Empire: A source for good or evil? February 2014 | Page 18

British Empire and the Democracy
The terms « Democracy » and « Empire »
At first sight the terms « democracy » and « empire » seem to be incompatible with one another.
« Democracy », Greek in origin, connotes self-government, local anatomy, liberty. « Empire »,
Latin in its source and military in its primary signification, calls up ideas of conquest,
subjugation, autocracy based on force, alien domination. The great empires of the past were
uniformly authoritarian and anti-democratic. Few sayings of classical antiquity have attained a
wider currency than the remark which Thucydides attributes to the arch-demagogue Cleon : « A
democracy cannot manage an empire » But if history seems to support the proposition that a
democracy cannot manage an empire, not less emphatically does it appear to lend countenance to
the view that an empire cannot be, or at any rate cannot remain, democratic.
Document 1
A British monarchy, pretending to be democracy, in order to have Britain rule the world.

“Will you youths of England make your country again a
royal throne of Kings?” – John Ruskin, Oxford, 1873

“The true aim and object whereof shall be …British rule

throughout the world … the ultimate recovery of the United
States of America as an integral part of the British
Empire….” - Cecil Rhodes, late 1800′s

Worldpress.com

Some important definitions to memorize :
A democratic empire is a political state which conducts its internal affairs
democratically (i.e. with respect for its citizens and their collective will) but externally its policies have a striking
resemblance to imperial rule.
At the peak of its power, the phrase " the empire on which the sun never sets " was often used to describe the
British Empire, because its expanse across the globe meant that the sun was always shining on at least one of its
territories.
Democracy is a in which all eligible citizens participate equally either directly or through elected representatives
in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that
enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Evil/Democracy/Güllar