Athenian Democracy Vs Representative Democracy Dbq Essay

Democracy is a system of government based on the idea that a region’s management is controlled by the people or by elected representatives. Democracies can be direct or representative. In a direct democracy, citizens are directly chosen to fulfill tasks such as executing the laws by becoming a part of the political party. In contrast, representative democracy elects officials or administration in the political organization to stand for citizens and exemplify the change that the people want to society. Democracies should also establish a sense of liberty to everyone and many states believed to have accomplished that goal. However, some people have been excluded and unable to feel free and frankly, it isn’t truly a democracy until everyone

One of the most distinguished democracies are America and Athens. In America, officials or representatives are elected to speak for the people whereas in Athens, citizens are able to speak and represent themselves. Furthermore, in America, there is about 300 million people in total, in which 55% of citizens are men and women over the age of 18 that is allowed to vote. However, in Athens only men with citizenship have the ability to vote. It states “Total population: 240,235… Percentage of total population able to vote: 12%” (Document C, Josiah Ober). In similarity, both Athen and America share the same ideology of having three branches in government. In America, the three branches are called the legislative who makes laws, executive which carries out laws and finally the judicial which evaluates those laws. Moreover, both Athens and America have established a constitution that clearly states all laws and duties citizens must sustain in order to illustrate the correct representation of their democracy. It states “ the people have secured their control of the state and established the constitution which exists at the present day. The democracy has made itself master of everything” (Document B,

However, not everyone in Athens and America get the same opportunity that others get, thus, restricting the concept of freedom in a democracy. Liberty was stripped away from people in Ancient Athens because only men were able to attend to the needs of the states and vote while women were stuck with the role of mother and wife. It isn’t just because women is capable to do the same thing men do. It states, “ It is less democratic by narrowing down the concept of demos to mean the adult male citizens in assembly” (Document D, Mogens Hansen). Similarly, America has never understood the meaning of liberty and that is evident with America’s past and its present. Slavery was one of the primary acts that treated people like inanimate objects without considering the person as human. When the Founding Fathers assembled to write the Constitution, they found that some northern states wanted to end slavery. This caused a disruption to the new government and to resolve the problem, they decided to keep slavery because it was a great way to improve their economic system by selling goods that slaves made. It states “ an end to slavery had important economic implications… The founding fathers were more determined to fashion a new nation than they were to bring an end to slavery” (Historian Interpretation #3, Kermit Hall). Furthermore, when slavery was finally abolished, many people especially