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Sparta and athens political system
Sparta and athens political system
To what extent was ancient greece a democracy essay
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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
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).
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.
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.
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.
The Athenian Democracy, created as a response to the period of tyranny in greek history by Cleisthenes was not was the dream that had been envisioned. The people of the era believed each and everyone one of them had a power to influence society in someway. Democracy was created to provide that opportunity and yet the people failed to rise to the occasion. Society remained governed by the elites even if the evidence of such behavior was hidden behind a screen of institutions. All who were men and citizens of Greece could potentially participate in the demos.
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
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.
John Locke is an English philosopher that believes that a person remains the same person from one time to another as a consequence of memory. To prove his point Locke explains his thesis in An essay concerning human understanding. John Locke’s strongly believed we remain the same person through our memory and the “extension of consciousness”. In other words an individual will continue to be the same person as they were throughout their time period due to their memory. My opposition to Locke’s theory comes in reach where he assumes a person that has brain damage will change their personality or character because they are no longer conscious of who they were.
It allowed for the participation of all citizens in the political process, regardless of their wealth or social status. This helped to ensure that the government was accountable to the people and that their needs were being met. Additionally, democracy in ancient Greece encouraged the development of critical thinking and debate, which helped to prevent the rise of tyrants and the establishment of an absolute monarchy. The citizens were able to hold their leaders accountable for their actions and decisions, and to vote on laws and policies that affected their
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.
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.
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.
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.
