Question

why did democracy take a backseat in middle ages

Answer 1

because the countries are ruled by other countries and rulers

Answer 2

A Republic has representatives of the people rule, democracy is direct rule by the people. Democracy (from democratia in Attic Greek) was really only practiced in Ancient Greece from the 7th to the 2nd century BC. It lingered in a modified form from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD because the Romans left local governments in place but took over foreign policy (essentially how a republic works). When the Roman Empire fell most areas came under the rule of Germanic tribes who practiced limited Monarchy. In the east most of the Byzantine empire was captured by the Caliphate who had a limited monarchy aswell. The King had considerable power but there was some kind of tribal council of chiefs that had some amount of power which varied by the particular tribe and moment. So the only parts of medieval Europe with any kind of democracy would be sporadically in the Italian cities (especially Florence and Venice). The local governments stayed intact from the fall of the Roman Empire, but assumed foreign policy responsibility (since outside the city walls was all of a sudden foreign territory). Real democracy is nearly impossible for a place larger than a city-state (even in Athens only about %10 of the population could vote). A Republic can be almost infinite in size since 1 person can be elected per 800,000 people (the current Average for the Republic of the United States). Someday elected representatives from Mars and Venus could fly back to Washington Or Geneva to represent their planets. Democracy was really extinguished by the Roman Republic, though that was a gentle transition with local Democracies voting to turn over power to a Roman Federal government. During the Roman Empire federal control increased as local control diminished. When the empire collapsed there was limited monarchy almost everywhere.