<P> Temple University professor of anthropology and an authority on the culture and history of the Northern Iroquois Elizabeth Tooker has reviewed these claims and concluded they are myth rather than fact . The idea that North American Indians had a democratic culture is several decades old, but not usually expressed within historical literature . The relationship between the Iroquois League and the Constitution is based on a portion of a letter written by Benjamin Franklin and a speech by the Iroquois chief Canasatego in 1744 . Tooker concluded that the documents only indicate that some groups of Iroquois and white settlers realized the advantages of a confederation, and that ultimately there is little evidence to support the idea that eighteenth century colonists were knowledgeable regarding the Iroquois system of governance . </P> <P> What little evidence there is regarding this system indicates chiefs of different tribes were permitted representation in the Iroquois League council, and this ability to represent the tribe was hereditary . The council itself did not practice representative government, and there were no elections; deceased chiefs' successors were selected by the most senior woman within the hereditary lineage in consultation with other women in the clan . Decision making occurred through lengthy discussion and decisions were unanimous, with topics discussed being introduced by a single tribe . Tooker concludes that "...there is virtually no evidence that the framers borrowed from the Iroquois" and that the myth that this was the case is the result of exaggerations and misunderstandings of a claim made by Iroquois linguist and ethnographer J.N.B. Hewitt after his death in 1937 . </P> <P> The Aztecs also practiced elections, but the elected officials elected a supreme speaker, not a ruler . </P> <Ul> <Li> Norman Davies notes that Golden Liberty, the Nobles' Democracy (Rzeczpospolita Szlachecka) arose in the Kingdom of Poland and Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth . This foreshadowed a democracy of about ten percent of the population of the Commonwealth, consisting of the nobility, who were an electorate for the office of the King . They observed Nihil novi of 1505, Pacta conventa and King Henry's Articles (1573). See also: Szlachta history and political privileges, Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth, Organisation and politics of the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth . </Li> <Li> The Case of Proclamations (1610) in England decided that "the King by his proclamation or other ways cannot change any part of the common law, or statute law, or the customs of the realm" and that "the King hath no prerogative, but that which the law of the land allows him ." </Li> <Li> Dr. Bonham's Case (1610), decided that "in many cases, the common law will control Acts of Parliament". </Li> <Li> The Virginia House of Burgesses, established in 1619, is the first representative legislative body in the New World . </Li> <Li> The Mayflower Compact, signed in 1620, an agreement between the Pilgrims, on forming a government between themselves, based on majority rule . </Li> <Li> During a period of renewed interest in Magna Carta, the Petition of Right (1628) was passed by the Parliament of England . It established, among other things, the illegality of taxation without parliamentary consent and of arbitrary imprisonment . </Li> <Li> The idea of the political party with factions took form in Britain around the time of the English Civil War (1642--1651). Soldiers from the Parliamentarian New Model Army and a faction of Levellers freely debated rights to political representation during the Putney Debates of 1647 . The Levellers published a newspaper (The Moderate) and pioneered political petitions, pamphleteering and party colours . Later, the pre-war Royalist (then Cavalier) and opposing Parliamentarian groupings became the Tory party and the Whigs in the Parliament . </Li> <Li> English Act of Habeas Corpus (1679), safeguarding individual freedom against unlawful imprisonment with right to appeal; one of the documents integral to the constitution of the United Kingdom and the history of the parliament of the United Kingdom . </Li> <Li> William Penn wrote his Frame of Government of Pennsylvania in 1682 . The document gave the colony a representative legislature and granted liberal freedoms to the colony's citizens . </Li> <Li> A bill of rights is enacted by the Parliament of England in 1689 . The Bill of Rights 1689 set out the requirement for regular parliaments, free elections, rules for freedom of speech in Parliament, and limited the power of the monarch . It ensured (with the Glorious Revolution of 1688) that, unlike much of the rest of Europe, royal absolutism would not prevail . </Li> </Ul>

The origins of british democracy can be traced back to the