Essay On Democracy And Athenian Democracy

It is often said Athenian democracy was the foundation to our present day democratic system, but where do they compare? How similar are the two democracies compared from different time periods, and how are they dissimilar? On several grounds can we compare and contrast these two democracies; the legislative process, Rule of Law or the judicial system, leadership or executive branches, citizenship, slavery, gender rights or equality, freedoms or liberty, and voting. These are the main components in these two democracies’ that allows us to see how they perform and execute specific aspects. Starting off, let’s discuss the history of the two democracies in question. The word “democracy” stems from two separate words. The etymology is “the people” and “rule, power,” …show more content…
democracy, we can see several similarities. Both wanted more power for the people after dealing with other forms of rule such as monarchy and oligarchy. The people also could participate in meetings to discuss many different things, allowing a legislature process. These two democracies both had someone that was head executive branch to be the leader of them. They also allowed the people to vote for who they wanted to head the executive branch (Hansen). For a time, both democracies had in common that only men could be in government and vote, until the U.S. democracy changed. Another example of similarity is slavery; both had slaves as a necessary evil. Although, that is another thing that changed in the U.S. later on in the democracy. These two democracies also allowed more than just the injured party to appear in courts that were made up of random people to create an unbiased jury. They both had ways of determining citizenship and having citizens specific to their lands. Finally, they allowed the people to be free and have right depending on their place in the systems. There are many similarities that the U.S. democracy can contribute to the Athenian