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Greek contributions to democracy
Greek contributions to democracy
Ancient greeks affect our american society
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The Athenians established a direct democracy where the people voted directly on the matter at hand.” (Ancient Greek Democracy, History.com) “The Romans then created their own type of democracy, where the citizens elected leaders to represent the people’s opinion.” (Crabill, Ancient Rome) While neither the Athenian nor the Roman democracies were perfect by any means, they both
The ancient people truly influenced our world today inventing the calendar we still use today and the idea of a democracy that the U.S.A uses in our daily lives. ( Doc. 1 ) Ancient Athenians used a type of democracy called direct democracy that is very similar to the United States representative democracy. Each citizen would have a say in everyday government. For example, when the people of ancient Greece were deciding the name of the city we now know as Athens, everyone had a vote whether to name the city after the goddess of wisdom, Athena, or the god of water, Poseidon. They obviously chose Athena as the name of the city is Athens.
Free slaves could also vote.” (Document B) Even though it was only the male citizens that could vote, it still made big changes for Rome. Also during that time women were taking care of the kids, and not having an education or job. So it makes sense for only men to vote back then, it was more fair that they let free slaves vote because technically that made them citizens. Relating to this,“slavery allowed many of the wealthy citizens to participate in the politics of running the empire.
Amanda Milito HI 101-OL3 Professor Brozyna October 21, 2016 Essay #1 Athenian Democracy & American Democracy Similarities The similarities between Athenian Democracy and American Democracy are uncanny. The Athenian democracy was the first of its kind developed in 508BC.
During the period of Cleisthenes, Democracy started to change into a powerful political system it influenced the western political and stages various from the Greco/Roman philosophers and ethical judeo/christians teaching and in the feudalism in England. All of them have effect the change of Democracy in many ways you can imagination but this where the build blocks of our founding fathers. Greece and Roman philosophers help influence normal day democracy. Most of the philosophers did left have people talking about them but mostly had an effect on society after their death one of those philosopher who questioned everything where Socrates like everyday in a democracy country you have the right of free speech.
Just like several other ethnic groups in the 1800s, poverty drove many Greeks to emigrate to America. In their home country, agriculture paid inadequately and was long, arduous work. And those already paltry conditions turned destitute for citizens when blight struck their crops. This caused a mass migration from Greece that began in the 1890s and lasted through the 1920s (Iliou, 2007). During that time, many people from Greece sailed to Ellis Island, in hopes of a better future.
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.
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.
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.
Rome granted citizenship more freely than Athens. Citizenship was granted to free, native-born adult males and females as well as their children and the sons of freed slaves (doc A). Although many people were granted citizenship, not all were given equal rights. For example, foreigners in conquered lands could be given “full or partial citizenship”, and citizens of states with treaty obligations were given “limited rights in return for performing military service” (Doc C). The government in Rome was divided into three different branches: the Consul, the Senate and the Assembly (Doc F).
There are many greek influences on our culture today. However, these impacts are not very widely known in our modern society. The Greek culture affects our everyday way of life. They created democracy, the alphabet, libraries, the Olympics, math, science, architecture, and even lighthouses. Greecians created systems that would not be imagined in a person’s wildest dreams.
Slavery was also non-existent in the Maurya Empire.[13] However, according to Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, "Ashoka's orders seem to have been resisted right from the beginning. "[14] Roman law also embraced certain limited forms of liberty, even under the rule of the Roman Emperors. However, these liberties were accorded only to Roman citizens. Many of the liberties enjoyed under Roman law endured through the Middle Ages, but were enjoyed solely by the nobility, never by the common man.
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.
The General Assembly and Senate established a sense of importance in Rome. The General Assembly was made up of Plebeians, and the Senate consists of Patricians. The terms General Assembly and Senate are two of many terms still used in the US Government today. The Romans were led by a king who was approved by the senate and a vote of the people, which is also displayed in the US Government. This is displayed in our presidential elections.
the idea of representative government began to take root in some city states, specifically Athens. Athenian reformers moved toward democracy, rule by the people. In Athens citizens participated directly in political decision making. However there were limitations on citizenship to ensure that only the most rational people were able to vote. Through the construction of democracy in Athens, equality of all citizens became greater, and the city would become the top democracy of all the democracies.
