Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Why was direct
democracy not practical
during the 19th century?
- The populations were much larger and
diverse than that of Ancient Greece
- The size of the state was often
too large for all of the people to
assemble together.
- Most people
remained illiterate
and uneducated.
Expecting them to
reach important
political decisions
was unrealistic.
- There was a fear
that the minority
groups would
suffer
discrimination at
the hands of the
majority.
- The interests of the landowners, merchants and
businessmen would be swamped by that of the
ordinary people, who were numerically superior.
- Only a minority
of people owned
their own
property, they
feared tyranny of
the non-property
owning class.