Ancient Athens Argumentative Essay
Democracy is the government that everyone gets a say in everything. Ancient Athens was supposedly one of the few truly democratic societies. The question is, were they truly democratic. There are people on both sides of the issue. We can't go and ask them so we depend on historians to tell us more about them. The historians are the ones who can make a difference. Historians need to realize that ancient Athens was not truly democratic because of the percent of the population that could vote, the fact that if someone did not do what the higher people wanted they could be punished, and the different levels of government.
In a true democracy everyone has a say in everything but in Ancient Athens that was not the case. Only male citizens could vote. A citizen is a man or woman whose parents were both natives. “There were about 100,000citizens… 10,000 mitolkoi or resident foreigners and 15,000 slaves… only about 40,000 people could vote” (“Ancient Greek Democracy”). How is it a society where everyone has a say. There are a total of 260, 000 people in this country and only about 40,000 people could vote (male citizen over the age of 18) not even ⅕ of the population. This proves that Ancient Athens was not a true democracy. …show more content…
“It was in these meetings that people could be marked with red paint if they were not fulfilling their civic duty” (“Democracy is born”). That statement shows that Ancient Athens was not a true democracy because in a true democracy you could state your opinion or not it was your choice and you could not be punished. Also if you were disliked they could be banned for ten years. How is that fair is you apposed something the council would vote on you being thrown out in a true democratic society that would never happen you would have to commit a crime
Democracy is the government that everyone gets a say in everything. Ancient Athens was supposedly one of the few truly democratic societies. The question is, were they truly democratic. There are people on both sides of the issue. We can't go and ask them so we depend on historians to tell us more about them. The historians are the ones who can make a difference. Historians need to realize that ancient Athens was not truly democratic because of the percent of the population that could vote, the fact that if someone did not do what the higher people wanted they could be punished, and the different levels of government.
In a true democracy everyone has a say in everything but in Ancient Athens that was not the case. Only male citizens could vote. A citizen is a man or woman whose parents were both natives. “There were about 100,000citizens… 10,000 mitolkoi or resident foreigners and 15,000 slaves… only about 40,000 people could vote” (“Ancient Greek Democracy”). How is it a society where everyone has a say. There are a total of 260, 000 people in this country and only about 40,000 people could vote (male citizen over the age of 18) not even ⅕ of the population. This proves that Ancient Athens was not a true democracy. …show more content…
“It was in these meetings that people could be marked with red paint if they were not fulfilling their civic duty” (“Democracy is born”). That statement shows that Ancient Athens was not a true democracy because in a true democracy you could state your opinion or not it was your choice and you could not be punished. Also if you were disliked they could be banned for ten years. How is that fair is you apposed something the council would vote on you being thrown out in a true democratic society that would never happen you would have to commit a crime