Page 92 - Wholeness
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about a segment of the whole does not provide a true answer.
Partial solutions are not progressive. True answers are obtained
by studying things in their entirety.
Roman democracy was largely a copy of the Greek, even though
it sometimes guaranteed the right to vote to citizens of non-
Roman origin. The philosophy of Roman stoicism, which defined
human race as a small proportion of the divine principle; the
Hebrew and Christian religions, that highlight equal rights of all
before God, enabled the development of the so-called modern
theory of democracy.
The Roman Republic ended in the despotism of the Roman
Empire. The free cities in Italy, Germany and Flanders managed
to retain some of the democratic principles during the Middle
Ages. Slaves were no longer majority.
As the epoch of feudalism ended, a rich middle class emerged
that owned money and time necessary to participate in the ruling
elite. A consequence of this was the revival of the spirit of
freedom based on ancient Greek and Roman principles. The
concept of equal political and social rights continued to be
defined during the Renaissance, when the ideology of Humanism
was born, and later during the Reformation and the struggle for
religious freedom. Historically, when small parts represented
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