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Roman republic democracy
Roman republic democracy
The contributions of Ancient Greece to the Growth of Democracy
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“In 508 BCE, the Athenian aristocrat Cleisthenes instituted the first Athenian political democracy.” As the Greek playwright, Euripides wrote in his play that,“ Nothing is worse for a city than a tyrant.” (Section 2.2The Rise of Democracy and the Threat of Persia) Cleisthenes knew that, so he gave every
Being Democracy The people could legislate by them self alone (Document B). Not being Democracy The voting was only held in Rome. So if you didn’t have the time or money you couldn’t vote (Document
United States democracy is widely renowned as one of current society’s greatest systems of government, though being far from perfect. The laws of the United States are mainly derived from the Constitution, signed shortly after the Declaration of Independence, utilizing democratic decisions made by the people, for the people. There are, however, many similarities in Athenian democracy that can be compared to modern United States democracy. The greek word “democracy”, derived from the greek words dêmos and krátos, literally means “people power”, and was developed by the Athens around the fifth century BC.
Was Rome truly democratic? They were kind of democratic, or at the least, they tried. After time, it turned into despotism by tyrants, which destroyed the meaning of demokratia. Rome didn’t do a great job expressing democracy, for an example, they allowed the majority of men to vote, but most of them we’re too busy or too poor to vote, which left only 2% of the men to vote. Women were not allowed to vote, although, if they created a petition to change that, it wouldn’t be a problem, but due to tyrants and rulers, they would just veto the
Democracy is what we call a formation of government where citizens and group of people can vote on laws. The Roman Republic did not have a well developed formation of their government but it did have the qualifications of democracy. There were pros and cons of voting in the Roman times such as anybody can vote. According to Professor Millar, he says, “Every adult male citizen, unless specifically disqualified, had a vote, and there was no formal exclusion of the poor. Free slaves could also vote.”
In a representative democracy, citizens choose representatives to vote on laws and make political choices. In ancient Rome, many political leaders and historians claimed that the government was a democracy. However, Rome was never truly a democracy, due to their unfair government organization, and lack of democratic citizenship. In terms of government career holders, and as regular citizens, some groups of people were more powerful and privileged than others. To start off, the government of ancient Rome was far from democratic.
One trait that our democracy today has in common with ancient Greece democracy is the fact that both hold nationalism and patriotism very high ("Ancient Democracy vs. American Democracy -Democracy in Ancient Athens," n.d.). Another likeness was the demonstrations, people marching and speaking out for what they believe in and want heard ("Ancient Democracy vs. American Democracy -Democracy in Ancient Athens," n.d.). A huge difference with the two concerning democracy was the fact that Greeks only considered the rights of citizens and they were troubled with the many differences between groups of people where today Americans make sure disparities are a thing of the past ("Ancient Democracy vs. American Democracy -Democracy in Ancient Athens,"
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.
Our understanding of democracy has changed significantly since the ancient Greeks first practiced it. One of the reasons our understanding has changed is the way human nature has evolved since the time of the ancient Greeks. If we compare the way democracy has changed, we see that the democracy that we enjoy as Americans was not the same democracy that was practiced in ancient Greek. In this paper, I will attempt to describe the way our understanding of democracy has changed. If we read Sartori, he describes Greek democracy as a direct democracy and American democracy as a representative democracy, but explains that the ruler and the ruled were not the same in terms of Greek democracy.
Democracy did not start out as the same system we have in modern times. Before democracy was used in ancient Greece, Athens was ruled by kings, then by an oligarchy from 700 to 595 BC. Between the rule of the nobility and the introduction of democracy, Greece was under a tyrannical rule. Finally, in 508 BC, democracy was introduced in Greece, eventually spreading across the globe, despite the Roman attempts at stomping it out. Cleisthenes is most often the man who is cited for introducing democracy to ancient Greece, broke up the power of the aristocracy and divided Athens into ten “tribes” based on where people lived.
When talking about Ancient Rome there’s no doubt that it holds a spot as one of history’s greatest empires/civilizations. All throughout Rome’s history you can find many instances where the empire conquered many places, due to the country being such a mighty force they were very well respected. The great empire wasn’t always viewed that way though. Ancient Greek influenced Rome greatly while it was a growing empire off of the Tiber river. Roman beliefs, especially the gods and goddesses played a significant role in the Ancient Romans lives.
Ancient Rome left tremendous legacies such as technological advancements, religious beliefs and governmental structures that shaped the world today. The Romans conquered many territories and took on their cultures as well, in particular the Ancient Greek culture. Ancient Greek civilizations played a major role in the history and development of the Ancient Rome civilization. The Ancient Greeks influenced the social structure, religion and military strength of Ancient Rome.
But there were significant democratic elements in some cases, as well as examples of autocracy. Later Rome added emphasis on law and the institutions of a great, though somewhat decentralized empire. Politics were very important in classical Mediterranean civilization, from the Greek' city-states through the early part of the Roman Empire. Indeed, our word politics comes from the Greek word for city-state, polis, which correctly suggests that intense political interests were part of life in a city-state in both Greece and Rome.
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 first step toward democracy was when Draco, a nobleman, came to power in 621 B.C. Draco created a law code that stated all Athenians were equal under the law, no matter rich or poor. He also established debt slavery, where debtors worked as slaves to repay debts. Another important reformer was Solon, who came to power in 594 B.C He stated that no citizen should own another citizen, which outlawed debt slavery, and organized Athenians into four social classes by wealth.
