If the British aren't European, what are they? Asian?

Iceland was founded by people of Norse and Celtic descent. And yes, their form of government is derived from European forms.

I mentioned the Iroquois to 1) give them their due and 2) give yet another example of a national group who were both civilized and democratically self-ruled. Mr. Moses preaches that the two things are incompatible. He's Wrong.

To mention ancient Greece and Rome is not reaching at all. I stated that Europeans invented democracy, and you challenged me. So Raoul described the point of origin and I elaborated. Our Founders, in fact, would not disagree: many of them took their inspiration from Classical figures.

More than a contributory stream and more like a small river made up of a number of its own streams was the river bringing the models Washington chose for himself. These he deliberately, systematically and creatively melded together to form the George Washington whom he then portrayed. . . . George Washington, in a real sense, invented himself by creating an original model from several that he had in mind and then lived by that model.

There were, at least, four such models that he used. One was the Roman model of Cato from Addison's play "Cato" about a virtuous Roman. Washington saw the play many times, memorized parts of it and had it acted at Valley Forge. He also thought of Cincinnatus, the Roman farmer, who left the plough to lead the army that saved Rome and then went back to farming, refusing the role of "Dictator" offered by the Roman Senate. . . .

Stazesky, Richard C. (Rev.). "George Washington, Genius in Leadership". Presentation at The George Washington Club, Ltd. Wilmington, DE: 22 Feb 2000.
The Papers of George Washington

The entire architectural structure of Washington, DC, built during the first decades of the Republic, is a tribute to Classical thought. This was not just because the people overseeing its design thought it was pretty.

On another note, Thomas Jefferson was at least as well-versed in the works of the French philosophes as he was in any of the English political philosophers of the day. Montesquieu, specifically, had great influence on the framers of the Constitution, particularly James Madison, known as the Father of the Constitution, with whom Jefferson maintained a very intense correspondence during the Constitutional Convention while he was American Ambassador to France.

Democracy didn't spring fully-formed from the foreheads of our Founders. It took its next step here, a big one, but the groundwork was all laid elsewhere. Most of it in Europe.