<Li> From the late 1770s: new Constitutions and Bills explicitly describing and limiting the authority of powerholders, many based on the English Bill of Rights (1689). Historian Norman Davies calls the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth Constitution of May 3, 1791 "the first constitution of its kind in Europe". </Li> <Li> The United States: the Founding Fathers rejected' democracy' as defined by the Greeks, preferring instead' a natural aristocracy', whereby only the landed gentry were entitled to a place in Congress . The Americans, as with the English, took their cue from the Roman republic model: only the patrician classes were involved in government . <Ul> <Li> 1776: Virginia Declaration of Rights </Li> <Li> United States Constitution ratified in 1788, created bicameral legislature with members of the House of Representatives elected "by the People of the several states," and members of the Senate elected by the state legislatures . </Li> <Li> 1791: the United States Bill of Rights ratified . </Li> <Li> 1790s: First Party System in U.S. involves invention of locally rooted political parties in the United States; networks of party newspapers; new canvassing techniques; use of caucus to select candidates; fixed party names; party loyalty; party platform (Jefferson 1799); </Li> <Li> 1800: peaceful transition between parties </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Ul> <Li> 1776: Virginia Declaration of Rights </Li> <Li> United States Constitution ratified in 1788, created bicameral legislature with members of the House of Representatives elected "by the People of the several states," and members of the Senate elected by the state legislatures . </Li> <Li> 1791: the United States Bill of Rights ratified . </Li> <Li> 1790s: First Party System in U.S. involves invention of locally rooted political parties in the United States; networks of party newspapers; new canvassing techniques; use of caucus to select candidates; fixed party names; party loyalty; party platform (Jefferson 1799); </Li> <Li> 1800: peaceful transition between parties </Li> </Ul> <Li> 1776: Virginia Declaration of Rights </Li>

What democratic practices existed in the middle colonies