A very interesting story about democracy and its evolution is in Estonia's history. Estonia in the early 20th century had one of the highest literacy rates in

A very interesting story about democracy and its evolution is in Estonia's history. Estonia in the early 20th century had one of the highest literacy rates in the world. When it first won independence around 1920, it formed a parliamentary democracy based on a constitution. A little while later, one party took over, and a new constitution was written that was much more authoritarian. The same leadership a little while later than that wrote another new constitution that was halfway between the first and second constitutions in terms of mix of democracy and authoritarianism. Then the Soviets invaded, and democracy vanished until the early 1990s. At that time they regained independence and created their present government. This is a huge oversimplification, but the four separate constitutions and the evolution of the Estonian system is fascinating.