Only the West has a millennium-long heritage of representative institutions

Evidence

Representative bodies. Social pluralism early gave rise to estates, parliaments, and other institutions to represent the interests of the aristocracy, clergy, merchants, and other groups. These bodies provided forms of representation which in the course of modernization evolved into the institutions of modern democracy. In some instances these bodies were abolished or their powers were greatly limited during the period of absolutism. Even when that happened, however, they could, as in France, be resurrected to provide a vehicle for expanded political participation. No other contemporary civilization has a comparable heritage of representative bodies stretching back for a millennium. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 191

Categorization

• QUESTION: This directly contradicts the common assumption that representative bodies are a modern global invention; but is it true of, e.g., Hindu panchayats, Islamic shura, or the Iroquois confederacy? Worth checking.