Oldest surviving democracy

Reader comment on item: The Enemy Within [and the Need for Profiling]
in response to reader comment: Response to commenter on the "Oldest Democracy"

Submitted by Paul Wilson (United States), Sep 14, 2008 at 19:16

The oldest surviving democracy is probably the autonomous government in the village of Manala, in the Himachal Pradesh region of India. The origin of this democracy is said to date back to the time of Alexander the Great's excursion into India (a little before 323 BC). The village population is roughly 1,500.

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