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Athens Was Not A Democracy Dbq Analysis

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What was the first ever democracy? Many people think that Athens was the first democracy. Athens was a city-state in Greece. It was a very early settlement from ancient times. The city-state of Athens wasn’t a true democracy because only 12% of people could vote, government jobs were picked at random, and slaves were forced into labor against their will.
The first reason Athens was not a true democracy was because only 12% of people were able to vote. According to Professor Josiah Ober, only 29,900 people had a vote. That is 12% of the population (Doc 3). In a true democracy, everyone has a vote. All people are supposed to help decide on topics. In Athens, only citizen men were allowed to vote. This excludes 88% of the population. This …show more content…

According to Agora Museum Archives, “The machine assured random selection of the men who worked in the government. This ensured that every post, except those for generals (and a few others), was filled randomly.” (Doc 5) In a democracy, everyone gets to voice their opinion and what they think. This system makes it so that people have no control over their role in Athenian Democracy. This lottery system is completely random. That proves that Athens was not a true democracy because it is random and no one has a say. This quote, “All the magistrates (gov’t officials) that are responsible for carrying out everyday responsibilities are elected by lot (random lottery) in the Assembly.” From Aristotle, “The Athenian Constitution,” 330-322 BCE, shows that they had planned to have all government officials picked at random. In a true democracy, nothing is random. Everyone should have a vote and the right to voice their thoughts. With this system they have put in place, people’s roles in the government are completely arbitrary. Thus proving, Athens was not a true democracy because government roles were picked at

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No i don't think Athens was truly democratic because, all the rules of ancient Athens are very unfair with all their rules and rights for all citizens. The first reason is because Our constitution favors many instead of the few, this is also why it's called a democracy. This basically means that if you are not wetly than they won't treat us the same as wealthy people. And they only let men vote which means that only 12% in ancient Athens can vote. In Athens no one had freedom of thought and expression either.

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294 Words | 2 Pages

Was ancient athens truly democratic No they were not democratic because first the women,children,and slaves were not allowed to vote because they thought they had no right to vote and only men were allowed to make decisions. Second,the magistrates were elected by a lottery and not the people which meant that the people had no power and no say in who will be ruling them. Also since they excluded people from voting it was considered an oligarchy not democracy. Oligarchy means that a government has a small group of people that have the power to rule and control everything.

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1130 Words | 5 Pages

“One of the most precious gifts of ancient Greece, which seems to have been an invention of the Athenians, is the concept of democracy: the notion that all people can and should govern themselves”(123). Democracy in Ancient Greece was very significant and impacted Greek lives. Before 500 BC, Greeks were ruled by small groups that limited citizens' power and decision making. The democratic ideas were welcoming and equal for citizens. These democratic ideas inspired many authors, philosophers and others to write about democracy.

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In the democratic government only allowed wealthy and well borne men to vote or hold public office. But as time passed this began to change and more and more individuals gained the right to vote. Athenian democracy was called a direct democracy, this meant that only citizens voted and debated on the issues. For an Athenian citizen to be ideal he must be voting with the right intention and making the right decisions for his community as he has the power to do so. Here we have the Athenian concept of Arete.

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657 Words | 3 Pages

In Athens: Aristotle (1984) explains that Athens practiced a form of direct democracy, where all male citizens over the age of 18 had the right to participate in the Assembly. This democratic

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The type of government they had in Athens was a Democracy, where only men voted for

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All city-states had different governments eventually and had their own leaders, ran their own army, and had their own laws. In 508 BC the democracy was introduced by Athens. A democracy is a form of government in which citizens rule the city or country. Democracy was starting to spread around the Ancient Greek city-states.

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723 Words | 3 Pages

The movement against tyranny has an impact on the development of a new type of system known as democracy. Greece was one of the first countries to record the events of their democratic system. The Greek word democracy literally means the right of the people to rule. Because it was founded in the ancient Greek city-state of Athens, the first democratic government in Greece was possibly the strongest and most stable(“Democracy | Definition, History, Meaning, Types, Examples, & Facts | Britannica,” 2023) . Greek democracy had a significant impact on modern democratic methods.

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In Athens, every issue was voted on by the people based on majority rule, known as a direct democracy. Votes took place at the Athenian Assembly known as “the center of Athenian democracy” where all citizens could voice their opinions (p7). While all “citizens” could participate in politics not every resident of Athens could place a vote. Women, slaves, and foreigners were not granted citizenship and therefore could not vote. This meant that over fifty percent of Athens' total population was unable to participate in politics (The Greeks 2013 p7).

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593 Words | 3 Pages

There was no democracy in Sparta. Instead, there was an oligarchy where two kings ruled over the city-state. • Democracy is a system of government in which laws, policies, leadership, and major undertakings of a state or other polity are directly or indirectly decided by the “people,” a group historically constituted by only a minority of the population. Reference ThoughtCo.

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The Athenian Democracy remains a novel and captivating analysis in direct majority rules system where the general population don 't choose delegates to vote for their sake yet vote on enactment and official bills in their own privilege. The Roman Republic was all the more a time

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The Ancient Greeks developed the concept of democracy, which continues to be a fundamental aspect of modern Western political systems. Perhaps humans all over the world have become accustomed to being ruled by the powerful, and having decisions and policies imposed on them. It was not common and may have been impossible in those ancient times for someone in power to seek the opinions of citizens or involve them in decision-making. Nevertheless, Athens was ahead of its

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The ancient city of Athens is the birthplace of democracy. While the Athenian democracy may not have been completely perfect, overall it provided the foundation for a very effective form of government. Despite being the birthplace of democracy, one flaw of the Athenian democracy was it did not allow everyone to participate in it. In order to be able to participate in the government of Athens someone needed to be a “proper” male citizen of Athens. In addition to being exclusively for males they must also be a proper male citizen, meaning it was necessary to have both an Athenian mother and an Athenian father.

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988 Words | 4 Pages

Democracy versus Oligarchy The Greek’s political life relied on the city-state, also known was the Polis, which was a self-governing community. The Polis is described as “a clearly defined territory under the authority of a single political community” (Western Civilization Section 5). Now, Greece contained around 862 city-states, but the main three were Corinth, Sparta, and Athens (Western Civilization Section 5).

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Democracy can be demonstrated in many different ways, for the Spartan and Athenias this was the case. In all governments there must be someone in control of the people, but certain requirements must always be met in order to have a political influence. The everyday lives of citizens and non-citizens are directly influenced by the government that controls them. Although Athens was the first and most influential Democracy, Sparta was actually a Military Dictatorship. This made the two consequently different from one another, which makes their values and communities entirely different.

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