Politics are a clear by-product of the complex hierarchical human interactions that delegate and divide work required to complete any task. Politics is clearly rooted in the agricultural practices of a early civilizations of the past. The first political leaders where essentially those who were savvy enough to determine the right time to plant and harvest crops. The individuals who were able to predict the proper planting and harvest seasons gave themselves religious authorities based on their ability to observe natural phenomenon. This explains why typically religious leaders are considered political leaders throughout histories. To this day, primitive civilizations look towards shamans for political leadership. The Egyptian pharaohs were kings as well as gods. Politics is the process by which a group or groups of people make collective decisions. In that struggle to make collective decisions, minorities’ rights are infringed upon.
Political decisions are either made by individuals, or groups of individuals that decide on the direction in which to take a group. The desires of individuals and groups is not always guaranteed in the political process, this is the root of all political conflict. Political conflict is initiated by the social relations that involve authority and power among a nation, tribe, ethnic group, or state or between two or more nations, tribes, ethnic groups, or states. Political conflict can occur either externally or internally. The political conflict can surround the ability of a group of people to access an important resource, privilege, or power that gives an advantage over the opposing group. Political factions can reach consensus and forge relationships based on mutual interests, ideologies, and religions. Political factions may also form coalitions in the interest of dis-empowering a mutual enemy. The most famous of this type of coalition was the alliance between the United States, United Kingdom, and the USSR during World War II to eliminate the common enemy of Nazi Germany. The United States and United kingdom are natural allies based on common heritage and trade. However, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is not aligned with the other two countries regarding their political and economic ideologies, but Nazi Germany was a threat to all three nations so a coalition was based on that mutual interest. This is the essence of all political action at the macroscopic level.
At the microscopic level, politics is not limited to operation of a nation-state. Politics can also happen at the workplace, trade unions use the collective interests of workers to gain strength in numbers to hold their employers accountable to the obligations inherent in the employer-employer relationship. Laws are the product of the collective decisions that the characterizes the political process. Trade Unions protect the rights of employees that clearly have less power in the employer-employer power dynamic.
All political decisions were made on a collective basis to suit the needs of the collectivity as opposed to the needs of the individual from the beginning of civilization till the end of the 18th century of the common era. Kings, queens, and monarchies are the most natural form of the collective orientation of the decisions made in the political process. Kings, Queens, Emperors, and Empresses all rule by decree; what they believe suits the needs of the greater good, therefore policy with no means of recourse. Athenian Democracy made progress on the fairness of the political process, democracy is rule by the people. However, the rights of minorities were not protected in democracies despite the fact that every citizen had a political say. The Roman republic gave rights to members of its society that were of a smaller political power between the two classes in the ancient city of Rome; the Plebeians and the Senatorial class. Each respective class had reciprocal rights over one another. The Magna Carta established that the king is the sovereign and has the authority to choose what is best for the collectivity but is limited within the established confines of the law. That means that an individual who is imprisoned by the king for mere political opposition is not valid unless the king has the lawful authority to detain that individual.
The bicameral representative body of the Roman republic and the magna carta were the basis of political machinations designed to protect the rights of political minorities. After all, the greatest of all political minorities is the individual. The philosophical basis of the American and French Revolutions of the late 18th century that made earth shaking progress in the protection of the rights of the individual. Political philosophers like John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Voltaire contemplated the ways to create a government that has the ability to act quickly enough to meet the needs of the majority of people but simultaneously avoid acting in a harsh manner against political minorities. The three pillars of their political philosophies was the universal protection of life, liberty, and property. The assumption that this philosophy made of all people is that all people are reasonable; and therefore, capable of self-governing without a king The key political figures in the American and French revolutions made an innovation on the governance of nations based on the political philosophers of ancient history and the contemporary period. The Bill of Rights (1789) and the Droit de L’homme (rights of man) in that same year came up with the brilliant idea of putting limitations on the actions of governmental regimes to protect the political and property rights of the individual. Freedoms of speech, the press, and religion; right to petition, right to speedy trial with a jury of peers, protection from unwarranted search and seizure of property are some rights enumerated by the American Bill of Rights. The French Droit de L’homme guaranteed the individual of the right to life, liberty and property without due process. The American and French Revolutions are the beginning of modern western democracy in which the rights of the minority are respected. This softens the harsh nature of the political process on minority parties.
The American Civil War, the Suffragist and American Civil Rights movements were also fought to expand the political franchise of political minorities in the world. The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the American Constitution were added as a result of the struggles of the American Civil War. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished the horrible institution of slavery within the United States of America. The Fourteenth Amendment gave black males full citizenship rights and equal protection of the law for all minority groups. The Fifteenth Amendment is what guaranteed that the blacks males shall have the vote. The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote, politically enfranchising women of all races and creeds. The American Civil Rights movement was fought to end racial discrimination that economically and politically disadvantaged political minorities in the United States of America. The 1964 American Civil Rights act ended racial segregation in all public places and made discrimination based on race, gender, and creed illegal in the workplace.
The political struggle for equal rights is something that characterizes the modern political scene. Activists, human rights organizations, non-governmental organizations, supranational governments, states, and even multi-national corporations are all players in the struggle for minority rights. The interconnected global economy necessitates the adoption of a new set of political rights that are applicable to all human inhabitants of the world. The genocides of the bloody twentieth century prompted the United Nations to adopt the Universal Charter on Human Rights, which enumerates human and political rights for all individuals of the world.
Tags: history, political, Political History