The Democracy of Athens meant that the people rule themselves. It was easy for the Athenians to see who the people are due to the population number at the time. Therefore, they could easily make decisions. The biggest difference between Athenian democracy and almost all other democracies is that the Athenians had a direct democracy rather than being representative. The city-state of Athens, 5th century Athens to be precise, is the inventor and first practitioner of democracy. One of the earliest known democracies was in Athens, a city-state in southern, ancient Greece. In Athens, the ruler Draco tried to make many reforms in the city state. Draco organized laws by putting them in a written code, letting everyone know what the laws were and …show more content…
The next ruler Solon, the next Athenian ruler also helped Athens become a democracy. He also wrote many reforms into the laws and gave all citizens the right to vote, an important step in the origins of democracy. Some of his reforms created problems for other people, who wanted to become citizens. Democracy came about in Athens as a result of the growing navel power and the reforms made by leaders such as Cleisthenes and Pericles.
Cleisthenes began his reforms with the reorganization of the tribes. Athens, like most Greek cities, had been divided into tribes based on descent. This gave aristocratic families a natural way of securing influence, because relatives tended to stick together. Cleisthenes completely reorganized the Athenian State into a new, artificial, and rather complicated system. In his system, the basic unit was the deme, the village in which one lived. These demes were then put together into thirty somewhat larger units called trittyes. Cleisthenes then formed his ten new tribes by combining one trittyes from different parts of Attica, one from the coastal region,
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In earlier times the main executive officials had been the nine archons, one of who supervised religious functions. After their year of service an Archon became a lifetime member of the Council of the Areopagus. But after 487 BC, the power of the Archons was reduced and Pericles than reduced the Council of the Areopagus's power to the supervision of religious rites. The only officials elected by public vote were the city architect and the Board of 10 Generals. Pericles was a major figure on this board during the 5th century. Pericles introduced state pay for service on the Council of 500 and the jury. In this way, even poor citizens could take part in public life. One of his more popular measures was the introduction of a law limiting Athenian citizenship to children both of whose parents were Athenians. This may have seemed like an unfair measure, but it had the effect of making citizenship a privilege and thus encouraging civic responsibility. Along with his own personal ambition and his patriotic desire to Athens, Pericles also had lofty ideals for uplifting his fellow citizens culturally. He spent public money to beatify Athens. These public works gave employment to the citizens and the result was the embellishment of the Acropolis with the great buildings, which have made
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.
I believe that ancient Athens was not a true democracy. In a democracy all of the people are able to vote, and have a choice on who runs their city. In ancient Athens only the men were able to vote. Their government was Demokratia, and this excluded the women, the children, the metics, and the slaves. Even though their government was ran by the people themselves, only the men in the city could vote.
A democracy is a form of government that is ruled by the people and controlled by the people. For example, here in the United states which is a democracy, everyone is allowed to vote and have land. Also, everyone is allowed to practice a religion of their choice. Athens was truly democratic because everyone had the equal justice, people were voted into office, and one’s social class did not determine what a person could become.
In a true democracy, nothing is random. Everyone should have a vote and the right to voice their thoughts. With this system they have put in place, people’s roles in the government are completely arbitrary. Thus proving, Athens was not a true democracy because government roles were picked at
When you look at the literal definition of democracy in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, there is a decently large explanation. When looking at this definition and trying to decide whether the Athenian democratic system was truly democratic, one would have to go with the answer no. While it has been stated that Athens is the “cradle of democracy”, and that it was better than any of the other governments in the world, it was still a work in progress. The Athenian democracy, while it did give more power to the people, still left a lot of citizens out. The current American democracy may have steamed from Athens, but they do not really have that much in common.
The Athenians had a direct democracy which allowed the citizens to directly decide and vote for who they wanted to rule their country. In Athens there were three bodies of the government. The Assembly is the first branch which included all citizens that showed up to cast their vote. The Assembly decided what new laws would be and they made important decisions regarding war, laws, etc.
In mid-6th c. BCE Athens, just five years after the government of Solon (594), the Athenians found themselves encompassed by dissension and internal disorder. Athens created the first democracy-based government, although their government became more of a republic with democratic attributes. They, the electors, were unable to elect an Archon for five years due to their dissent with the former principles ran by the State. All people within Athens viewed these principles with contempt, those in the elite[upper] class were ‘estranged because of the abolition of debts,’ while the poor people wanted the distribution of all land and property. Both parties were unhappy with the changes made by Solon’s reforms and so many refused to vote for any new
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.
Unlike the Romans, Athenians had a strict but fair schedule that allowed them to enjoy citizenship equally. Equally, hard workers have brought Athens power just as much as hereditary leaders. According to Document B all citizens should be allowed to speak their opinion and have a share in election because of the hard work they do to make the city powerful. Athenians allowed poor and common men to win a position in government which was a transition from the wealthy having power to everyone having power.
Although the two city-states of Greece carried different motives they were both thought of as thinkers who loved beauty and multiple forms of art. Culture is one thing the two city states seemed to differ in greatly. Athens was thought to be a more progressive city-state. It’s known for art, architecture, drama, science advancements, philosophy, as well as literature. Though they were advanced in all of these fields they were behind on the rights of women.
While some, like Plato in his The Republic, thought it weak to give government into the hands of the common people, Pericles countered this argument with a compelling argument of greatness. By putting government into the hands of the people, the people are united and more devoted to their country. Democracy bonds the people together in a way that no other government can understand. Pericles confidently states, “Athenians advance unsupported into the territory of a neighbor, and fighting upon a foreign soil usually vanquish with ease men who are defending their homes.”
The term, Democracy, stems from the Greek word ‘demokratia’ which means rule by the people and it wasn’t until around 500 BCE in Athens where the first examples of democracy originated. While Athens is widely regarded as the first historical example of a democratic system, some scholars believe that the Roman Empire’s republic system was more democratic than that of the Greek. As I will come to
Athens organized a group of Greek city states into the Delian League and eventually lead and dominated all of the city states in the League. Athens’s military prowess allowed them to look down on the other members of the League and treat them as members of an empire instead of equals. This caused some to view them with hostility which sparked the conflicts between Athens and Sparta that lead to the Peloponnesian War. The direct democracy of Athens wasn’t actually as inclusive and steady as the statement at Pericles 's funeral state, “Our Constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people (Doc C).” In fact, of the 450,000 citizens of Athens in 430 BC, only about 40,000 people had the power to vote.
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.