Democracy – rule by the people… But where did it begin…  And did the roots of innovation start there?  How did we get to where we are now?

So, I was doing some reading – and I found out that contrary to my original assumptions, and although Athens is traditionally considered the source of all things Democracy (certainly the word if nothing else) – it turns out that democracy seems to predate the Greeks.  I know…shocking…hard to believe…inconceivable according to Vizzini.  But – yet – true.  It appears that the history of democracy can be found further back than we all like to think in western culture – off in eastern culture.

The reason that the Athenians have gotten all the credit for this is that the creation of Athenian democracy can be attributed to someone, that the precepts are documented and that they closely connect to our current definitions.  Specifically:

Solon divided the Athenians, into four property classes, with different rights and duties for each. As the Rhetra did in the Lycurgian Sparta, Solon formalized the composition and functions of the governmental bodies. Now, all citizens were entitled to attend the Ecclesia (Assembly) and vote. Ecclesia became, in principle, the sovereign body, entitled to pass laws and decrees, elect officials, and hear appeals from the most important decisions of the courts.^[34] All but those in the poorest group might serve, a year at a time, on a new Boule of 400, which was to prepare business for Ecclesia. The higher governmental posts, archons (magistrates), were reserved for citizens of the top two income groups. The retired archons were becoming members of Areopagus (Council of the Hill of Ares), and like Gerousia in Sparta, it was able to check improper actions of the newly powerful Ecclesia. Solon created a mixed timocratic and democratic system of institutions.^[36]

As you may guess from all the hyperlinks – this was taken from Wikipedia.  So what does this have to do with innovation?  Well, for the purpose of political systems, wealth creation, ownership, legal titles, etc – a lot.  It turns out, once you establish a democratic rule, much of the rest of this becomes possible on a broad scale.  Democracy and Innovation are tightly twined.  Democracy is by no means the only source of Innovation, but it is a source that has broad potential for all aspects of the community.  It is not limited to innovation for military might, nor wealth creation, democracy based innovation can aspire to solve problems in any field imaginable.

What is most interesting about this though, is that the democracies of humanity’s ancient past have more closely resembled the “open innovation” communities that we are seeing rise up today than initially could have been presumed.  How so?  Well consider this:

“Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology”^[2]. The boundaries between a firm and its environment have become more permeable; innovations can easily transfer inward and outward. The central idea behind open innovation is that in a world of widely distributed knowledge, companies cannot afford to rely entirely on their own research, but should instead buy or license processes or inventions (i.e. patents) from other companies. In addition, internal inventions not being used in a firm’s business should be taken outside the company (e.g. through licensing, joint ventures or spin-offs)^[3].

And then there is Social Innovation:

Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds – from working conditions and education to community development and health – and that extend and strengthen civil society.

The term has overlapping meanings. It can be used to refer to social processes of innovation, such as open source methods and techniques. Alternatively it refers to innovations which have a social purpose – like microcredit or distance learning. The concept can also be related to social entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship is not necessarily innovative, but it can be a means of innovation) and it also overlaps with innovation in public policy and governance. Social innovation can take place within government, within the for-profit sector, or within the nonprofit sector (also known as the third sector), or in the space between them. Research has focused on the types of platforms needed to facilitate such cross-sector collaborative social innovation.^[1] Social innovation is gaining visibility within academia.^[2]

Additional terms that sometimes fall into this area include Crowdsourced innovation, innovation communities and others.  In each case, the concept involves using social means, communication, community development and other techniques to promote the rise of ideas from within or without an organization drawn from a community of persons.  The evolution of laws took place by crowdsourcing, the definition of markets took place through crowdsourcing, the evolution of farming and nearly all of humanities activities driving up to the creation of our modern cities occurred through crowdsourcing – sometimes these crowds were rewarded, sometimes not.

We can rely on power, wealth, military might and national interest to drive innovation certainly, but to really unleash a torrent of innovation, don’t discount democracy.  Democracy unleashes the creative spark in humanity in a way that very little else can.

Thanks to Wikipedia for all the quotes – I couldn’t imagine writing this without you.