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Ancient Greek Meaning Of Democracy

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Etymologically, the word democracy is believed to have rooted from ancient Greek word as a composite of “demo and kratos,” demo in English translation means “the people,” on the Greek term, the people is regarded as the native male adult resident of the polis. While kratos means “power,” in this sense, democracy originally may be interpreted to mean “the power of the people.” However if democracy is simply referred to as the power of the people, then the rational sense question could be, power in what sense? Following the classical sense of Greek political thought, the meaning of power within the ancient Greek thought of fifth and fourth centuries B.C., was used to referred to as, Capacity to do things, in a wider re-interpretation it could be referred to as “Majority rule,” Josiah (2007: 2). Nevertheless, this root meaning of democracy was later criticized by Modern opinions of democracy based on what could be considered as administrative stand. That is, the view that the mob cannot rule itself.
In modernity, the meaning of democracy shifted from the traditional conception of its meaning as “majority rule,” and “power” to “majority will” (Josiah, 2007: 2). Analytically, this demonstrates a shift from force to will or choice. That is the willingness of the majority to incline to their choice. In addition, it shows the voting right given to the majority for the determination of their fate; hence the so-called “power of the people” becomes the authority to decide a political
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