Democracies are sought after because they offer citizens the greatest opportunities for of exercising their self-determination. Democracies allow citizens to pursue fulfilling their own interpretation of the innate values that have sustained the Homo sapiens species for over 200,000 years. When citizens feel that they no longer are able to do that, then the support for their government begins to erode, and their resentment becomes more evident. This has become clearly evident in the United States in the last 60+ years.

What is always needed to fulfill those values is “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as each citizen determines for him or her self. We see this clearly in the intention of the Declaration of Independence to form a democratic government to support the liberty of citizens to fulfill their life and to pursue their happiness as they determine. Ratification of the Constitution in 1789 provided a social, political, and economic structure that not only allows for liberty and self-determination of citizens but also provides the social, political, and economic environment that promotes the greatest self-determination without jeopardy to citizens.

It may appear to be a leap of reasoning and logic to connect the sustainability of our species to the development of a sustainable democracy, yet, that connection is immediately relevant because that same species now populates democratic societies. The driving force that brought about the American Revolutionary War and other social, political, and economic revolutions into existence was and will always be human motivation. The organic values of our species mandate that we seek to improve our quality of life, to develop our innate potential, and to do so equally as anyone else would or could. The “equality” part is what has prompted more revolutions, insurrections, uprisings, rebellions, and riots than any of the other values.