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Greek Democracy: Athenian Democracy

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In the 4th and 5th century in Athens, Greece a new form of government arose. It was called a democracy. The word democracy derives from the words, demos meaning entire citizen body, and kratos which means rule. Compared to the other forms of government during this time it was very different. Instead of being ruled my emperors or the upper class, the democracy allowed all male citizens to have equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate in their government. “The Athens’ political affairs were open to all citizens. Every citizen had the right and obligation to take part in state affairs and voice their opinions.” The changes that Athens put in place were so important that they impact us even until this day. …show more content…

The issues that were discussed in the assembly included “deciding military and financial magistracies, organizing and maintaining food supplies, initiating legislation and political trials, deciding to send envoys, deciding whether or not to sign treaties, voting to raise or spend funds, and debating military matters.” The assembly met 40 times or more every year and every citizen was able to attend. This was also the place they held elections for generals and other elected offices. If there were any citizens that were beginning to become too powerful or dangerous to the polis they were able to vote to ostracize that person. The assembly also made sure that the decisions made were enforced and that the officials were carrying out their duties correctly. Because citizens had so much influence on how their lives were ran freedom of speech was their most valued …show more content…

There is a difference though between Greek democracy and United States democracy. In Greece they ran a direct democracy where every citizen had the right to participate in deliberations, law making assembly, and other governing institutions. In the United States there is a representative democracy where citizens vote for representatives rather than participating directly. This is mainly because the changes of the way of life and the amount of people making it more difficult to ran the government the way Greece had. There have been recent political movements which have shown frustration with perceived failures of representative democracy, for example the Occupy movement was inspired by direct democracy. There are also many states that are adopting direct citizen initiatives that are loosely modeled on Athenian

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Athenians Democracy Ancient Athens has two documents that discuss democracy. The first one is “Document A: Pericles” and the other one is “Document B: The The Athenian Constitution”. In document A, I found that is truly democratic because your social class is not allowed the interfere with someone 's merit. For example, if you’re poor you’re still able to serve the state or be part of the government. In document A it also states that “you get equal justice.”

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997 Words | 4 Pages

Simply the foundation of democracy in Athens is incredibly important to the governmental system of the current United States. Of course there are the obvious differences between the two systems, such as different ages of voting eligibility, and the fact that gender does not decide someone’s ability and right to make important political decisions. Athens utilized the votes from the people a bit differently as well, with a small 40,000 Athenian men voting on whatever issues simply rose to attention. Elections were also determined through a lottery system, whereas officials in the United States are completely decided by its citizens. There are an abundance of differences between the two governmental system, with the most important policy used by both the Athenians and the United states being the decision to allow the majority, the citizens from any social class, to vote and be a part of a

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504 Words | 3 Pages

Unlike the Romans, Athenians had a strict but fair schedule that allowed them to enjoy citizenship equally. Equally, hard workers have brought Athens power just as much as hereditary leaders. According to Document B all citizens should be allowed to speak their opinion and have a share in election because of the hard work they do to make the city powerful. Athenians allowed poor and common men to win a position in government which was a transition from the wealthy having power to everyone having power.

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1489 Words | 6 Pages

The Romans had a system of indirect democracy where the people had the power to vote for representatives who would advocate for them on the state level. The Greeks had a government in which the people directly were involved in the governmental and legislative process. In addition, both systems were flawed in their representation of their people in their respective governments through neglecting a large portion of their population. Both societies did well to create term lengths to decrease the likelihood of corruption and abuse of power through creating accountability. However, the Greek democracy was a caliber above its counterpart.

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Was ancient Athens truly democratic? Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state. I do not believe that in the 4th to 5th century BCE ancient Athen were democratic for many reasons.

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1285 Words | 6 Pages

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…

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A democracy is a form of government that is ruled by the people and controlled by the people. For example, here in the United states which is a democracy, everyone is allowed to vote and have land. Also, everyone is allowed to practice a religion of their choice. Athens was truly democratic because everyone had the equal justice, people were voted into office, and one’s social class did not determine what a person could become.

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Athens organized a group of Greek city states into the Delian League and eventually lead and dominated all of the city states in the League. Athens’s military prowess allowed them to look down on the other members of the League and treat them as members of an empire instead of equals. This caused some to view them with hostility which sparked the conflicts between Athens and Sparta that lead to the Peloponnesian War. The direct democracy of Athens wasn’t actually as inclusive and steady as the statement at Pericles 's funeral state, “Our Constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people (Doc C).” In fact, of the 450,000 citizens of Athens in 430 BC, only about 40,000 people had the power to vote.

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When you look at the literal definition of democracy in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, there is a decently large explanation. When looking at this definition and trying to decide whether the Athenian democratic system was truly democratic, one would have to go with the answer no. While it has been stated that Athens is the “cradle of democracy”, and that it was better than any of the other governments in the world, it was still a work in progress. The Athenian democracy, while it did give more power to the people, still left a lot of citizens out. The current American democracy may have steamed from Athens, but they do not really have that much in common.

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As various studies suggested, ancient Athens pursued permissiveness and democracy, which its form of government was the antecedent of nowadays 'rule by the people '. After toppling the dictator Hippias in 510 BC, Athenian demos not only took power, but also introduced electoral system that "with no single ruler. A public assembly of male citizens met 40 times a year to vote on state decisions. The agenda was set and decrees carried out by a 500 strong council, chosen by lot to serve one year each"(Finley, 1983). In my view, the authority was no longer centralized in the hands of one administrator, more ordinary people got a say in running the

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1134 Words | 5 Pages

Most notable, however, was the democracy of Athens and the oligarchy of Sparta. The driving force behind all of Greek life and politics was this concept of arete. While arete differed between Athens and Sparta, this lust for excellence became the driving force behind their democracy and oligarchy. The geography of Greece did not allow for a strictly central government, and so, the Greeks adapted.

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517 Words | 3 Pages

It also represents the control of an organization or group by the majority of its members. Democracy did not originate with the founding of the United States. The term "democracy" comes from two Greek words: "demos" meaning the people and "kratia" meaning power or authority. It is defined as being a government by

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The Greeks displayed their humanistic values through government by they utilizing an effective system of self governing. This system was a direct democracy, defined as “government by the people” or “rule of the majority.” In the Athenian Democracy, the Assembly was the regular

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298 Words | 2 Pages

Democracy, a form of government, allows the people in their own nationality to vote for people in order for them to become representatives as a result to vote on new laws that would affect their own nationality. One of the many states of Greece, ancient Athens was indeed not truly democratic as a result of not inclusive, other than male citizens, to gain authority in ancient Athens, ¨Demokratia was ruled by male citizens only, excluding women, free foreigners(Metics) and slaves.¨(Document D), therefore ruling Athens was only accessible to male citizen since since women, free foreigners(Metics), and slaves were not allowed to rule as a result of not being male citizens. One of the many states of Greece, ancient Athens, was indeed not truly democratic as a result of not even using the essentials of democracy that is used today, “Thus, by our standards, it was oligarchy, not democracy.¨(Document D), therefore ancient Athens was not using democracy as their form of government, they were using oligarchy,another form of government in which a small group of people has power and control, as their form of government instead of democracy.

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1159 Words | 5 Pages

First of all, it is important to know the definition of democracy and its aspects. According to Peter Joyce (2005), the democratic government was initiated in the Greek city state of Athens in the fifth century B.C., so as a consequence, the word ‘democracy’ derived from two Greek words, demos (meaning ‘people’) and kratos (meaning ‘power’) , which means ‘government by the people’. Secondly, Giovanni Sartori (1997), a Political Science Researcher states that ‘democracy’ is an abbreviation that means Liberal Democracy. He distinguishes three aspects: democracy as a principle of legitimacy (power not derives

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