Even looser definitions of democracy, such as Doyle's, find only a dozen democracies before the late nineteenth century, and many of them short-lived or with limited franchise (Doyle 1983), (Doyle 1997, pp.  261).
即使是採用較寬廣的民主定義，如同Doyle所採用的，在19世紀末期前也只有一打的民主國家，而且其中許多都相當短命或是選舉權有所限制(Doyle 1983)(Doyle 1997, pp.  261)。