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19 October 2005 Volume 2, Issue 4 Here in the Berkshires, autumn brings us wonderful colors—though a bit muted this year—and the peak of the wonderful crop of apples at our farmer’s market. Apple-picking is a favorite pastime right now, especially since our local orchard—Windy Hill Farms—
Across the street from our offices (and just outside my window) are magnificent maple and beech trees on the lawn of Great Barrington’s Town Hall—for many years the scene of that New England symbol of democracy: the town meeting (until those meetings grew too large to be housed in the 1874 landmark building). DemocracyDemocracy is much in the news these days. The Bush administration has made the spread of democracy its major foreign policy objective, and it is now the major rationale for the war in Iraq. If Iraq can be transformed into a democracy, the thinking goes, then democracy will spread to other Middle East nations. This is proving harder to do than to plan, but years of political science research do show that there are advantages to having as many democratic nations as possible. People in democracies have more freedom than people in totalitarian states, and democracies almost always have peaceful relations with one another. So, one way to achieve peace may be to have all nations become democracies. Civil Disobedience
Civil disobedience is not something that happens only in democracies, but is one way political and legal change occurs in democratic nations. The Civil Rights Movement in the United States is a good, recent example. As Henry David Thoreau noted, “Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.” Civil disobedience is different from simple law-breaking or criminal activity. Its defining elements are that it is carried out in public and is meant to be seen, is nonviolent, is done deliberately to break the law, and may involve breaking a law that is seen as unjust or to bring attention to your cause. Perhaps the three best-known practitioners of civil disobedience are Henry David Thoreau, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Parliamentarianism
From the Encyclopedia: The Global Influence of the American RevolutionThe significance of the American Revolution in world history rests on several bases. It was part of the ongoing colonial struggle among European powers because the opportunity to weaken Britain’s position drew the French monarchy into the conflict. The revolution ultimately inspired later changes in British colonial policy toward greater flexibility and decentralization where white settlers predominated; Canada became the first beneficiary during the first half of the nineteenth century. French expenditures in the war contributed to financial crises at home and helped lead to the need to call the Estates General (assembly) to consider new taxes and then to the French Revolution of 1789. Inside the Berkshire Encyclopedia: For more information on the history of democracy and the democratic process, try articles like “Citizenship,” “Civil Disobedience,” Democracy, Constitutional,” “Parlimentarianism,” and “Revolution—United States.” Related biographies include entries on Simon Bolivar, Mohandas Gandhi, and Thomas Jefferson.
The example of colonial independence, the strong principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence and other writings by U.S. leaders such as Thomas Jefferson, and the institutions ultimately established by the Constitution all inspired revolutionaries and nationalists elsewhere. (During a brief period of confusion, after 1783, the United States attempted a loose confederation; the later establishment of a federal system, with checks and balances among legislature, executive, and judiciary, would have the real influence in the long run.) French revolutionaries invoked the revolution in 1789 but also in 1830 and 1848; in the last revolution, a U.S.-style presidency was sought, although the effort misfired. The U.S. example loomed large in the Haitian and Latin American struggles for independence (1798 and post–1810, respectively) because it provided the first modern instance of decolonization. The South American liberator Simon Bolivar, particularly, cited U.S. precedent in his hopes for a greater Colombia, free from Spanish control. The U.S. political philosopher Thomas Paine summed up this aspect of U.S. influence, although with some exaggeration, claiming that the revolution “contributed more to enlighten the world and diffuse a spirit of freedom and liberty among mankind, than any human event that ever preceded it.” (Source: Peter Stearns, “Revolution – United States” Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History (2005), pp, 1617-1619.) 
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offers marvelous views of the Berkshire hills as well as great picking.
According to social scientist Patricia Erickson, “Civil disobedience refers to a deliberate offense against authority committed openly to protest an unjust, arbitrary, cruel, pointless, or immoral law or policy of the government.”
Parliamentarianism is a form of government that places power in the hands of an elected legislature. It developed in England beginning in the thirteenth century as a means to control the power of the monarchy while also ensuring the orderly transfer of political power. Today, a number of democratic nations have parliamentary forms of government including Great Britain, Canada, Israel, Sweden, and Norway. The United States in its formative era rejected parliamentarianism as unrepresentative and instead chose a system based on a balance of powers among the three branches of government – executive, legislative, and judicial. In a parliamentary system, the members of parliament are elected by the citizens. The political party winning the most seats or a coalition of parties then forms a government, with the leader of the party as Prime Minister. In Great Britain, the Labour Party holds the most seats and its leader, Tony Blair, is Prime Minister.
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