Athenian democracy

The Athenian people have experienced numerous forms of government ranging from a constitutional oligarchy, monarchy to democracy over the course of their history. They transitioned from lowly slaves and serfs who were born into their casts, to a free people elected into office. In the best of times, they were given land and stature while in the worst, vengeance, banishment and war. The Athenian embracement of democracy over monarchy can be attributed to the tyranny experienced under the rule of…

forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country” (Franklin D. Roosevelt). In this society now of days, the government is categorized into two groups. These categories include the belief that this country should be governed by the people (democracy) and the ones who do not (other form of government). Though, it has long been assumed…

“A Democracy is the government of the People by the People.” (Lafayette, 2006) A government in which those eligible to vote, have a say in their future. There are many characteristics of democracy including, power is limited by elected representatives; central governments are prevented from gaining power by these representatives. Also, civilians who meet voting qualifications take part in unaltered, unpaid elections. Each society has their own variety of democracy. The two known varieties…

obvious reasons, others can carry a tremendous amount of prejudice in today’s world. In most of the Western World, however, democracy is considered the best form of government. While some can point flaws and problems with this kind of government, it’s defended by many. According to Churchill, “no one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time…”…

Compared to the modern theories of democracy that were developed during the Enlightenment era, certain aspects of the Athenian democracy structure, including the pure Athenian male citizenship and constant law modifications that reduced protection for the people, made the system less democratic. The term “democracy” originates from the Greek language to mean the “power of the people”, which is not seen within the Greek democracy, as only pure Athenian men were allowed citizenship, the right to…

The Athenian democracy operated differently from today’s democracy, but not necessarily more effectively. Finley seems to argue that although the basis of democracy was a good idea, it had many flaws, and was a utopian system, designed for “perfect” people. It was not representative, as it is nowadays, but direct, meaning that all the male citizens over the age of 18 could participate on the decision making, as long as they had not lost their civil rights. However, people could very easily…

The similarities between Athenian and American Democracy Once a writer said, “History is not the past, but a map of the past drawn from a particular point of view to be useful to the modern traveler”(Glassie). History is a source of information that people can look up to for the modern time. History can also help to solve problems which would not be possible without it. Moreover, if people look into history there were society which created law and values that lead to the modern society. For…

citizens according to a constitution, a set of laws. Around the fifth century BC Athens developed democracy, a system of government ruled by the population. Ancient Athens wasn't truly democratic because participation was not open to all residents (Doc.B and C) and because its way of ruling was inefficient (Doc D). One of the reason that Athens wasn’t truly democratic was because not all Athenian residents had the power to…

but Sparta had two kings. This was not a true monarchy. Both kings ruled together, and with powers limited by the Ephors and Gerousia, they were more of figureheads. Arriving at decisions in both a monarchy and a tyranny would be faster than in a democracy or an oligarchy, because that function lies with one man. This can be a weakness especially if a bad decision is made, resulting in a negative impact. In ancient Greece, the Aristocracy was a class of wealthy citizens who had political rights,…

Athens, this place is truly wonderful, it is a privilege to see where democracy first started. I have arrived in the the tale end of Athens golden age in the 5th century BCE. There is so much culcher from it philosophers to its citizen army. After talking to the locals I can narrow down Athens government into three stages. First there was Aristocracy, this government was arranged that only a few wealthy family had all the power and the rest had no political say in how the city state was rain.…