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Similarities Between Athenian Democracy And American Democracy

659 Words3 Pages

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. The basic and most important element of democracy is to understand that a democracy guarantees all humans rights. Not only that, but a democracy allows the citizens of that country to decide who will lead their country.
Athenian Democracy: The Athenian Democracy is the first known democracy in the world. Athenian democracy was discovered in 508 BC by Cleisthenes. The Athenians had a direct democracy which allowed the citizens to directly decide and vote for who they wanted to rule their country. In Athens there were three bodies of the government. The Assembly is the first branch which included all citizens that showed up to cast their vote. The Assembly decided what new laws would be and they made important decisions regarding war, laws, etc. Then there was the Council which looked over every day running of the government. The Council was not determined by voting but instead by a lottery. If your name was picked then you would be a part of the council for a …show more content…

They have the Legislative Branch that makes up the laws. They have the Executive Branch which is run by the president who oversees every day governing in the United States. Lastly they have the Judicial Branch which is made up of all the courts and oversees trials. The United States established a democracy sometime between the late 1700s and early 1800s after they broke away from British rule. It should be noted that American democracy stemmed from Athenian Democracy and although they have tweaked it along the way their roots stem from Athenian Democracy. Their ideas come from the way the ancient Athenians used to rule and have say in their

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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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Similarities That American Society Shares With Ancient Greece Ancient Greece produced many patterns and fashions that America has imitated. This civilization, more than any other, has molded what Americans observe and use architecturally today. Everywhere people look, they can see designs from Ancient Greece in this country. America has been inspired and influenced by the Greeks; therefore, there are replicated ideas of ancient Greece seen in many of America’s buildings. In the United States’ capital, there are buildings, especially the Capitol, which have borrowed ideas and patterns from some of Greece’s structures.

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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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The term, Democracy, stems from the Greek word ‘demokratia’ which means rule by the people and it wasn’t until around 500 BCE in Athens where the first examples of democracy originated. While Athens is widely regarded as the first historical example of a democratic system, some scholars believe that the Roman Empire’s republic system was more democratic than that of the Greek. As I will come to

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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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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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Before in an oligarchy or in a monarchy one person or group made the decisions about everything. This is a very basic similarity though, as the groups in each democracy do completely different things. The current American Democracy split up their responsibilities into three separate branches. These checks and balances are called; judiciary, legislative and executive. The leader of the country or president as we call him is contained in the executive branch.

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Is democracy the best form of government? It is mainly focused on the power of the people. A democracy is all about forming, managing, and collecting knowledge. If Athens becomes a democratic place, it will develop into a successful city-state because of it and the people, as they will be the ones ruling it. Democracy is successful since it organizes useful knowledge, making it both innovational and educational.

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Additionally, the reliability affected by the emotive language being employed in this article as the author utilises this language it demonstrates that bias is present. This article was useful to my essay as it provided detailed information on the gaps in Athenian democracy. Moreover, the article provided a perspective that highlighted the differences in Athenian democracy such as that Athens was a direct democracy and that only some of the population was eligible, it mainly created a feeling that Athens was advanced for its time however the system had discrepancies. This information provided significantly when comparing modern societies to ancient Greece and also in justify as to why democracy was significant to Greece. A source that shares this view is the Ted-Ed video this also similarly to historian Paul Cartledge states that Athens was a direct democracy and also that not all of the population had the right to

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Most of the states in the U.S are controlled by laws set by the government. In a democracy the laws created are supposed to be voted on by the people. As of today we need confirmation if the law can be passed by all three legislative branches. This is the complete

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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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The concept of leadership was prevalent in the ancient world. It had a place in the way the people of ancient times governed their lives. Greece, and especially Athens, is the cradle of democracy in the western civilization. Athens owes the first penal and civil law code to Draco. An outstanding statesman and poet called Solon acted in Athens at the same time as Draco.

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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.

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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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