5 ms·
And yet it is the oldest existing nation with a constitutional government in which the people elect their own government and representatives. It's always been
by influx 7y ago
And yet it is the oldest existing nation with a constitutional government in which the people elect their own government and representatives. It's always been a work in progress and always will be.
- harry8 7y agoIs it? Really? Hasn't the U.K. been a constitutional monarchy since 1688 or so? I totally accept it if we're only counting from the start of true universal adult suffrage, including women and taking no account of melanin content of skin - whoever is first on that deserves it be known widely for their national pride. Was that the USA?
- wyre 7y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_suffrage https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_suffrage UK has had universal suffrage since 1928. It looks like Finland was the first in 1904.
- scarmig 7y agoThe US can't realistically be considered an elected government until, optimistically, the 1960s. If you want to grant the US a couple centuries worth of mulligans, you can do the same with, at the very least, the UK, and arguably some other countries like Switzerland. And you ignore the other key point, which is that the US had no real national competitors near its borders, while other countries whose stability you discount did. That's the key point to American stability, not any world historical genius in drafting the Constitution.
- anthm1988 7y agoExcept we allowed progress to stall and now claim that's a virtue. America is by far the oldest nation with a presidency, and it's finally starting to collapse.