Athenian Democracy Dbq

To answer this question we must define what democracy really is, especially if one might not understand the true meaning. Democracy is the rule by the people, meaning that the people have a say in what the government does. The Athenian Democracy was the Ekklesia (Assembly), the Boule (Council of 500), and the Dikasteria. With the facts I have gathered, ancient Athens was definitely not a Democracy.

Democracy, the form of government in which there is a rule by the people, is said to have originated and thrived in the classical period of Athens, from 500-350 B.C.. Democracy inherently gave all that were considered citizens power to participate in politics. That being said, it is highly debated as to how much power the people, also known as the demos, exercised in this democracy. Many practices and informal institutions can be said to have limited the power of the demos. The democracy in Athens could be said to have been a democracy in theory yet not in practice, as can be proven through a variety of primary sources recounting Athenian political institutions and practices. Such primary sources that can demonstrate this include Herodotus’ History, Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War, and Demosthenes’ Oration Against Eubulides.

Ancient Athens was truly democratic because everyone should have the equal justice of everyone else because we should all have equal rights. Also, an example is in document A: Our constitution favored the many instead of the few. This is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they give equal justice to all. I believe that everyone should have the rights to vote, not only men.

Ancient Athens prided itself upon being a democratic society, but was it really? It's true that it was ruled by the people, however only a small percentage of people. Document C states that only 12 percent of people actually vote. And who are those 12 percent? The 12 percent of the whole population that voted was men whose parents were both citizens of the city (see Document B). Slaves, women, and resident foreigners were barred from voting.

Facts and information lead to the fact that Athens truly was a democracy. First of all, what is a democracy? A democracy is a form of government that the people of that state or country run. To prove that ancient Athens actually was a democracy, here are three pieces of evidence to prove so.

The Representative voting system in the Athenian government was more democratic, than the Roman Republic. In Athens, the first 6000 male citizens voted for their elected officials. Athen’s voting system is truly democratic because the male citizens voted on roles in the government, and sign up for roles. In Rome, all full male citizens could vote, while leaving out the other two types of citizenship that cannot vote2. Only having full citizens is less democratic because the other two citizens could not vote. The Athenian Democracy and Roman Republic both have restrictions on their voting system, but Rome had more restrictions on citizenship.

Was ancient Athens truly democratic? Athens was a democracy for the sole reason that no one person held power, such as a king or a tyrant. But if you look deeper into the situation you will come to realize that Athens wasn’t a true democracy. The reason for that because a democracy is where everyone has equal rights and freedom as long as they followed the law, but in Athens that was not the case.

The Athenian democracy is discomforting for a contemporary American because of the personal rights citizens obtain today that Athenians do not, and because of the lack of greek legitimacy in their political system, due to rationality. However, the life of an Athenian is quiet interesting, in the way it allows us to view the positive and negative elements of the Athenian society, in contrast of today 's culture, from how it runs, how they studied Greek politics, their perspective of what a citizen should be and its responsibilities, and their acts of rationality.

During the dawn of the Greek civilization, rulership consisted of one king that rule the entire occupied land. Such system included only family members, tribe members, and wealthy individuals to receive whatever good the empire had to offer. It took many years until new reforms came about in regards of rulership. The Athenian democracy was developed by the efforts of the leaders and philosophers who were encouraged to think and answer the why freely. Although it was called a democratic system, only male citizens had the opportunity to participate. In this essay, I will discuss how the Athenian democratic system was developed, why, and the efforts of the Greek thinkers in developing the Athenian democracy. Additionally, we will have the chance to examine if it was truly democratic.

Democracy in modern terms is “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.” This common definition differs in a few ways to that of Athenian democracy. For example, today the law comes before the person. Meaning that the law is upheld no matter who it is or the circumstances under which a person committed an offense. In Athens the people came before the law. Who the person was and why they did what they did was though of before a decision on their guilt and punishment was conceived. Another example is the focus on one ruler versus many. In today’s democracy people are under the

Democracy Democracy was the rule of the citizens. The city of Athens was the most well-known for this form of politics, and most other societies did not find anything good to say about it. The king of a foreign land said, “I find it astonishing that here wise men speak on public matters, while fools decide them.”

Another reason that ancient Athens was not a democracy was that the women of the society were not able to have social lives. The men had social lives and the women and children under 18 would stay home. This was not a democracy, the people did not have the freedom that is given in a present day democracy.

In our government today, it has incorporated many different ideas into it from other governments that we see from the past. We had gotten some of our government's ideas from Athenian Democracy, Greek Philosophy, Roman Republicanism, and English Constitutionalism. We did not incorporate every idea from those governments, but we did take bits and pieces that we saw fit.

Democracies have always leaned naturally towards smaller groups of individuals, as governing democratically becomes increasingly more difficult as feelings of unity go incrementally sparse the large a community becomes. Forms of rule such as monarchy and oligarchy flourish more in urban communities with a concentrated large population as it feels increasingly natural to remove filters or layers on what the ruling class wants done on basis of convenience. The first formal democracy originated in Athens from a swath of socioeconomic problems birthed from a ruling aristocracy that abused and enslaved the common people. To calm contesting factions after the civil unrest it was decided that political privileges would be distributed “on the basis of productive wealth rather than noble birth.” The solution was a democracy whose prime characteristic was being greatly direct in its workings.

The Athenian form of electing a government was called Limited Democracy while the Spartan form was called oligarchy. The Athenians, by far, had the best government and it ran the easiest and smoothest. The Democracy in Athens let participating citizens vote directly on legislation, executive bills, and actively serve in the institutions that governed them. The citizens directly controlled all parts of the political process which helped the government make decisions quicker. The Athenian assembly, known as the ekklesia, sat to discuss political, militaristic and social matters and agendas in the Pnyx. This was an area close by to the markets and social center of Athens, the “agora”. The Spartan oligarchy got nowhere and there was no communication