Democracy Vs Athenian Democracy

The Democracy of Athens meant that the people rule themselves. It was easy for the Athenians to see who the people are due to the population number at the time. Therefore, they could easily make decisions. The biggest difference between Athenian democracy and almost all other democracies is that the Athenians had a direct democracy rather than being representative. The city-state of Athens, 5th century Athens to be precise, is the inventor and first practitioner of democracy. One of the earliest known democracies was in Athens, a city-state in southern, ancient Greece. In Athens, the ruler Draco tried to make many reforms in the city state. Draco organized laws by putting them in a written code, letting everyone know what the laws were and

The next ruler Solon, the next Athenian ruler also helped Athens become a democracy. He also wrote many reforms into the laws and gave all citizens the right to vote, an important step in the origins of democracy. Some of his reforms created problems for other people, who wanted to become citizens. Democracy came about in Athens as a result of the growing navel power and the reforms made by leaders such as Cleisthenes and Pericles.

Cleisthenes began his reforms with the reorganization of the tribes. Athens, like most Greek cities, had been divided into tribes based on descent. This gave aristocratic families a natural way of securing influence, because relatives tended to stick together. Cleisthenes completely reorganized the Athenian State into a new, artificial, and rather complicated system. In his system, the basic unit was the deme, the village in which one lived. These demes were then put together into thirty somewhat larger units called trittyes. Cleisthenes then formed his ten new tribes by combining one trittyes from different parts of Attica, one from the coastal region,

In earlier times the main executive officials had been the nine archons, one of who supervised religious functions. After their year of service an Archon became a lifetime member of the Council of the Areopagus. But after 487 BC, the power of the Archons was reduced and Pericles than reduced the Council of the Areopagus's power to the supervision of religious rites. The only officials elected by public vote were the city architect and the Board of 10 Generals. Pericles was a major figure on this board during the 5th century. Pericles introduced state pay for service on the Council of 500 and the jury. In this way, even poor citizens could take part in public life. One of his more popular measures was the introduction of a law limiting Athenian citizenship to children both of whose parents were Athenians. This may have seemed like an unfair measure, but it had the effect of making citizenship a privilege and thus encouraging civic responsibility. Along with his own personal ambition and his patriotic desire to Athens, Pericles also had lofty ideals for uplifting his fellow citizens culturally. He spent public money to beatify Athens. These public works gave employment to the citizens and the result was the embellishment of the Acropolis with the great buildings, which have made