Consider, with detailed attention to evidence, themes, thinkers and Essay

Consider, with detailed attention to evidence, themes, thinkers and theories encountered throughout this module, connections bet - Essay Example Considering key aspects of the modern to be scientific objectivity, technological development advancing from agricultural communities to complex economies, centralization, industrialization, mass-production, and so forth, democratisation is both conceptually and historically aligned with all of these aspects of modernism. This is important, for the democratisation movement can be dated to the late 18th century with the American and French Revolutions implementing the Enlightenment ideals of philosophers such as John Locke, Adam Smith, Rousseau, and others who built on the cultural heritage of the Renaissance period in Europe. Just as the Renaissance era symbolized a rebirth of the Classical aspects of Greek and Roman culture, particularly philosophy, poetry, art, and mythology after a millennium of â€Å"Dark Ages† in Europe, so too Modernism took the best of these developments and made them the foundation for modern secular democratic culture. Yet, historians note an interest ing anomaly when it comes to the discussion of democracy historically and its roots in ancient Greek philosophy as politics. As F.A. Hayek writes in "The Constitution of Liberty," - Chapter 11: "The Rule of Law," "Individual liberty in modern times can hardly be traced back farther than the England of the seventeenth century... And for over two hundred years the preservation and perfection of individual liberty became the guiding ideal in that country, and its institutions and traditions became the model for the civilized world." (Hayek, 1960) Hayek makes an important distinction between Greek democracy as idealized by the Enlightenment philosophers and how it evolved conceptually as a practice of government and means of organizing society. He states, ironically, Greek democracy disappeared from the time of its idealized roots in Athens to the time of the American and French revolutions – that it was not used, referenced, or put into practice at all as a basis of government u ntil the fundamental revolutionary change that ushered in the modern era. Thus, it is valid to view democratisation and modernism as both arising out of the ideals of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. On this basis, the capitalists will additionally claim that the free market system is essential and interrelated with this process of democratisation, and that the democracy/free-market system represents a natural stage of development for societies that are evolving out of feudal structures to become modern States. Hayek positions England rather than America or France as the source of â€Å"individual liberty in modern times,† relating it to the struggle to institute democratic government in opposition to monarchy and royalty. However, it is extremely important critically that Hayek separates the processes and ideology of â€Å"liberalism† from that of democratisation. In simplest terms, liberalism is the ideology of freedom or liberty that seeks the most m inimal restraint on self-determination and autonomy of the individual, including the mental, spiritual, and physical aspects of self-development and self-realization. This is differentiated from the â€Å"democratic,† which relates more formally to the system of government. This duality is evident in