“Modern democracy has its roots deep in religion.”[1] Origin and development of modern day democracy has been taken place totally in Western Christian countries. In ancient Greece citizen elected their leaders through direct plebiscite. Christian scholars like Machiavelli, John Lock, and Woodrow Wilson are the proponent of modern democracy. Present successful democratic states are largely existed in Christian populated Euro-American region. They are successful because this democracy is fundamentally linked with their norms, culture and Christianity. For this reason Elizabeth argues, “Secular government must be firmly embedded in the Judeo-Christian faith for democracy to survive.
The West’s religious heritage bolsters democracy by offering a set of common assumptions within which politics can be conducted.” [2]
Western democratic countries desires to present democracy free of religious influence, but they cannot disclaim the history and cultural root of democracy. Therefore, when western leaders promote the idea of democracy beyond their region, they implicitly promote a religion guided ideology.
[1] “Religion: Christianity & Democracy,”, The Time magazine, U.S. June 25, 1951, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,806060,00.html (accessed: June 24, 2012).