Democracy: Introduction

Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln both said that eventually every country in the entire world would be free.

In short, the flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume those engines and all who work them.
T. Jefferson - September 12, 1821

Of our political revolution of '76 we are all justly proud... In it was the germ which has vegetated and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of mankind.
A. Lincoln - February 22, 1842

Jefferson predicted that freedom would spread throughout the world "to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all."

Lincoln, when asked what sentiment was expressed in the Declaration of Independence said, "it was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men."

Jefferson and Lincoln considered the spread of democracy throughout the world as inevitable. This shared belief of theirs holds that all anti and non-democratic regimes throughout the entire world will be replaced over time by democratic regimes. "Rivers of blood and years of desolation must first pass over," but it is "irresistible" in the words of Jefferson.

This belief of Jefferson's and Lincoln's is one of the basic doctrines of our democratic political philosophy - the doctrine of the historic inevitability of worldwide freedom.

Next: Democracy: Historical Perspective »