“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
Between 431 BCE and 404 BCE Athens, Sparta and other Greek cities were involved in wars that were very devastating which weakened them substantially. A year after the defeat of Athens in 404 BCE the Spartans had also allowed the Athenians to introduce democracy to them thereby replacing its government of thirty tyrants with a new democracy. During the Peloponnesian wars and especially towards the end there was a series of political uprisings that weakened democracy. Many citizens of Athens including intellectuals and philosophers like the aristocratic thinker Plato blamed democracy for the woes that Athens was going through. Brand(n.d).
How did democracy develop in Athens? Athens is the birthplace of democracy. At first, Athens was a polis which was under a monarchy. Then a king made himself one of the archons which is an elected leader to rule the city which was an aristocracy because only the wealthy and special families could become archons.
The Athenians developed a democracy. This was a direct democracy, which means the Athens would vote directly on issues. Most city-states were tyrannies at this time. Cleisthenes was the first Athenian to come up with this concept of government. The political side of Athens is a big selling point.
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.
Athenians formed a governmental system called democracy, meaning that citizens can vote on what they would like to happen within their government. Draco, Solon, and Cleisthenes help contribute to making Athens a democracy. Draco helped make Athens a democracy by making all Athenians equal under the law. Solon putting the citizen in four social classes and only the top three classes could become part of the government. Cleisthenes permitted all citizens to submit laws and vote on them.
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 idea of democracy began several thousands of years ago. Athens began this shift after experiencing various alterations in the form of government used. In earlier years, Athens was ruled by a monarchy. Which, by definition, is the opposite of democracy. Athens was ruled by one individual (lasting a lifetime) then by a superior class and eventually a tyranny.
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
Introduction The so called Greek democracy was centered mostly in the Polis of Athens although other Poleis tried to copy the system. This was a system of democracy where qualified participating citizens had to vote directly on legislation and executive bills. With this democracy, participation was not open to all citizens, but only to all adult males who are truly born Athenians and born by Athenian parents. Slaves, females, and other residents were not considered true citizens and therefore do not have the right to participate in any political activity.
The name comes from demos-people and kratos-power, so literally power of the people. Apart from many smaller changes, it was mainly based on the opportunity for all citizens over 20 to take part in governing the country. One of the main advantages of Athenian democracy was that the archon and his eight assistants were elected annually. It was possible to prolong the rule for the next term but in case of any abnormalities a quick change of government took place. The biggest advantage of democracy in polis was the general possibility of taking part in public life for all free citizens.
As far as democracy is concerned, critics of democracy, such as Thucydides and Aristophanes, both are pinpointing on that the demos in which that they thought that it could be too easily swayed by a good orator or popular leaders the firebrand and get carried away with their emotions. Democracy Democracy in Athens the government officials are chosen by sweepstakes and worked for 1 year for proposing and enforcing decrees but didn’t have much individual power. Democracy in Athenian government the way that the citizens pass a vote is getting done, in elected by the assembly annually for making decisions about military matters and by showing hands.
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.
Although Ancient Greece performed democracy, it was not completely democracy. The limitations of gender, nationality and social classes made only a very small minority of people living in Ancient Greece enjoy equal rights. However, it was still the closest civilization and come to establishing democracy and the most open civilization had accepted the ideas of democracy. The form of government of my civilization, Pecunia, was very similar to the form of government practiced in Ancient Greece. I called it “partial democracy”.
Some people think that ancient Athens was truly democratic, I think not. Democracy is the rule of the whole of the people,excluding minors and maniacs only. Democracy was rule by citizens only, excluding women, free foreigners (Metics) and slaves. By our understanding it was an oligarchy, not democracy.
