ABSTRACT
This chapter presents, in condensed form, a model of how democracy has worked in global culture from its inception to the present. It examines the whole history of global polyarchy, reveals several historical phases. The model discusses in the chapter point out that while monarchy and hierarchical government have been nearly ubiquitous in global history, polyarchy has been much rarer. The chapter explores that polyarchy is not merely a political institution, but that it also creates and propagates a type of political elite, and certain other cultural necessities and tendencies, which make it fundamentally different from monarchy. It explains that the most important implication of the model is the light that it sheds on the Great Divergence' debate. As with any model purporting to explain a major palpable event in global history, the phenomenon of the Great Divergence is unlikely to be disproven outright; however, it has been subject to a good deal of scrutiny regarding its chronology and geography.
