ABSTRACT
Once theorists thought vibrant, viable democracy emerged from centuries of struggle or maturation. People actually construct democracy, in two different senses of the word. First, they create a set of political arrangements the effects of which are democratic. The second sense of construction refers to the shared understandings, the culture, that people create for themselves. Broad-based democracy on a large scale first took shape in Western Europe. British history of the last two centuries illustrates the truism that changes in the character of the state and of citizenship entail alterations in the extent and character of democracy. In the world as a whole, autonomous militaries generally inhibit democracy, even when they seize power in the name of democratic programs. The exploration of tautologically necessary conditions for democracy–states and citizens–clear the way for thinking about contingent causes and concomitants of democracy. Democracy did become an option and a persistent program for reformers and revolutionaries.
