By the turn of the 20th century, the clamour of an exponentially growing population in nations increased to such decibels that generations-old monarchies the world over had to give way to commoner centric governments. If not divesting their monarchs and royalty completely a few countries chose to become constitutional monarchies; essentially maintaining their royalty as national legacy with their political and governing powers transferred to the man on the street. This global shift in style of governance sprung as the ideals of equality and equitability filled the hearts and minds of people striving for a more just world.
For many centuries the working contract between the ruler and his subjects was that the ruler provided protection and community belonging (citizenship) while the ruled produced sustenance and wealth for the Kingdom. The king, his warriors, land owners and the clergy formed the aristocrats; the merchants and peasants formed the productive commoner population of the Kingdom. Of course this ‘mutually beneficial’ contract was feudal and wealth flowed from the hands of the work and toil of merchants and peasants to the aristocrats. Aristocrats had their work in maintaining order and security which is as important but they had the opportunity to exploit and they took it and how they gloated in flaunting their opulence and distinguishing themselves as a privileged class–thus the inevitable consequence of too much wealth, a decadent society living off exploitation of labour. How long could such a Kingdom last? History has proven only as long as the most disenfranchised allow it. Consequently a critical mass of discontent is reached and governments have to reform or fall–often brutally; thus the checks and balances of economy follow a natural ecology.
Some Kingdoms transitioned quite smoothly because of savvy and considerate Kings like the Japanese, Thai and West European Kingdoms; while others like in Russia, the Eastern Europeans and China very violently. The geography of the world during the early 1900's was also filled with Western colonial powers in Asia, Africa and South America. The Western colonisers generally exploited the Kingdoms and aboriginals they conquered unfairly and behaved as arrogant monarchies. By the 1950's reeling from the expenses of World War 2 in cost and lives the global movement to break the hegemony of power and governance from monarchies trained their efforts on relenting Western colonisers. Eventually the colonised nations gained independence and set up governments by the people. Every new nation born at this time had a choice of democratic-capitalist, democratic-socialist or socialist-communist governments. In less than two centuries the era of feudal monarchies faded into the halls of history; likely never to return to replace progressive societies that cherished equality and meritocracy–well.. at least that’s how they started.
With the monopoly of power now securely in the hands of common folk the next daunting task was to reform feudal mindedness to the new consciousness of meritocracy where the productive effort of individuals meant more to their nation than lineage. Anyone could partake off the economic activity of their nation in which protection and citizenship are their right instead of a privilege provided by governments established by their peers. Governments were set up as the servants of the people and strived with the moral initiative to create equitable, just and contented societies. Thus a heady new world order was born in the midst of many new hopeful nations of the mid 20th Century; one where governments sought not to dominate but to work for the betterment of their own citizens while maintaining their unique identity.
50 plus years from the beckoning birth of a bright future of equitability and equality, we can certainly celebrate the success thus far of maintaining commoner centric governments save a handful of ugly dictatorships and pseudo democracies the likes of North Korea and Zimbabwe. Decade after decade the man on the street has flexed his muscle and changed his government when he was unhappy with it; and with the huge leaps technology has made in ease and speed of global communications his grip on his government has become a stranglehold. The last round of revolutions in the Middle East (the Arab Spring) conclusively proved the potency of the freedom of information and communication by shuddering the very foundation of the few remaining absolute monarchies and dictators.
But the people's work is far from over. While the march for equality has been making strides in the past century, better distribution of resources and wealth hasn’t worked as we had wished. Open exploitation of people based on race, creed and gender is very much in the wane; even if you were to disagree with this statement at least we can come to a compromise that it is further along the path of extermination compared to economic disparity. Economic exploitation is still rife and it is hard to make any confident claim of progress in tackling poverty in the last century. India for instance is the largest democracy in the world and it is exemplary in maintaining a democratic society by protecting the sanctity of a free and independent judiciary and press; the ruling political parties are also at the mercy of the people who have not allowed hegemony of power to settle with any particular political party; yet India despite being a relatively resource rich country is still struggling to lift its many from abject poverty. The Indian government claims it has been making progress in the last couple of decades by opening up its economy but the economic parity progress is imperceptible as one travels the streets of India; not that there are no super wealthy Indians here and there.
India is an obvious example of the economic frustrations that exists in communities the world over; basically as purchasing power plummets year on year the worker who pulls $25,000 a year has way more subsistence headaches than someone who rakes in $1,000,000. Certainly the prevalence of governments by the governed has created greater distribution of wealth among its peoples. There are good examples of governments where arguably equitable distribution of wealth has been accomplished like in Norway, Denmark and Finland. I would also wager that most citizens are very proud of their respective countries; however it is also obvious that exploitation has not waned in the global economy. Instead a new form of aristocracy has emerged who are neither Presidents nor Dictators, they are the heads of giant multinational corporations. I am not jealous of the super wealthy or think that the people should steal the wealth from the rich and give it to the poor, but we should clamour for change if someone becomes wealthy by knowingly exploiting labour under them for themselves, where the rich are rich because they steal from the hard workers and poor. I don’t think everyone has to be living in mansions and driving Lambos, or that everyone should be living in prefab homes and driving stock cars, variety is wonderful in the world, wealth is also nice. Just earn your keep fairly– common sense. Looking at the world around there is still plenty of room for improvement.
I would say that I have benefitted greatly from the struggles of my commoner forefathers. If not for the the hard fought liberties that they gained for us I would not have the level of education that I have or the opportunities open to me as they are. The hard fought revolutions of the past 300 years has made a difference that I deeply appreciate. Certainly if a person from the 19th century was able to see our modern cities and technology; the way people of different races and religions interact in relative harmony; the equal level of education available to boys and girls, she should be wonderstruck by the progress even if there are still places in just about any country where we can send her to prompt her to say 'same-old, same-old'. She might also offer us this wisdom–we have come thus far, it is not that far away before every single human being born can be guaranteed social and wealth equitability so continue on with the revolutions. The same fuel for change of the past still exists–exponential growth of discontent.
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Click Here to Go To The Great Idea Finder's Innovation Timeline
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