Athenian Democracy Dbq Analysis

Athens was not truly a democracy. The definition of democracy states that it is a system of government by the whole population. In ancient Athens the only people that were eligible to make decisions were citizen men. Women did not have the right to vote which contradicts the definitions of democracy. Only twelve percent of the Athens population were able to vote meaning that eighty-eight percent were left powerless. Metics were not even eligible to vote and they were a key part of Athens economy.

Democracy is defined as the the rule by the people which Athens did not show in their government. The Athenian Democracy was ruled by The Ekklesia, The Boule, and The Dikasteria. The Ekklesia, Boule, and Dikasteria were made of the assemblies, council of 500, and courts, which does not include all the people of Athens. Demokratia exemplifies that all the people have the right to power/rule the government.

democracy is a form of government in which people come together and make laws for the benefit of the country for example, here in the united states people have the right to vote, have equal rights, pursuit of happiness and practice in any religion of your choice. ancient athens did not have a true democracy. In ancient athens Women, free foreigners and slaves were excluded from voting, the government body could decide if you were a citizen or not. Also, women weren't allowed to vote unless they married a citizen. Therefor there constitution did not favor democracy.

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.

I believe that Athens truly was a democracy. There are pieces of evidence and proof supporting that Athens ran on a Democratic Government.

There are multiple reasons why ancient Athens was not a Democracy in its truest sense. In Document A of the Athenian constitution, it clearly states.. “ Our constitution favors the many instead of the few,’’ however, if that were accurate, why could only twelve percent of the population vote (Document C).The Philosopher, Plato, concluded that women should have the same education and hold all positions in society (Guided Reading Activity 1-2 question 10); this is the very same conundrum that the American government had to face back in the 1920’s (Amendment 19), and it still has not been completely addressed to this day. If the Athenian constitution had favored the many as it claimed than 100 percent of the population should been allowed to vote.

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.

What is democracy? Historians have, for a long time, kept this question in mind as they studied the methods and laws of the Ancient Athenians. After studying the given evidence it can be determined that Ancient Athens was not truly democratic.

The unifications of distinctive cities was justified by the communication and diffusion of various beliefs that brought the empires together (Doc. 3, 4 & 7). Under the Athenian laws, a philosopher by the name of Plato interpreted the gods of Athens to be the ones who have established the laws. The belief in the gods such as Zeus and Athena explains how the Athenians lived their life under the god’s “reign”. The gods initially settled laws and ideologies for the citizens of Athens to follow. In doing this, Athens is unified through one common belief in their gods and justified their actions through it (Doc 3). The philosopher, Han Fei, believed order and prosperity is only achieved by negative punishment when needed. He communicates that superiors

Democracy; coming from the Greek word, Demokratia, meaning rule by the people. Today’s definition of democracy is that it is a government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. If this was the definition back in the times of ancient Athens, they were nowhere near democratic. Yes, for the most part, Athens was ruled by the people, but more often than not the power of the people would be taken away or restricted. Athenians were not democratic because of this reason.

Athens was and still is known as the original culture to create the ideal of democracy and was the first democracy in the ancient world. (Pomeroy, 2012)(Levack, Muir, & Veldman, 2011). However; Ancient Athenians were not an equal society, they reserved citizenship for only a select group within the population.

Was Ancient Athens Truly a Democracy? Ancient Athens was a democracy because people were not in charge of the city, but only the citizen men were allowed to suggest towards the law. Also, citizen men were the only people who could actually vote and have a say in the laws. Women, children and slaves were given no rights and freedom of speech. Women were like slaves to the “citizen” men, but if they had the right to vote then it is a democracy because it won’t have everyone's decision.

Athens is the home of democracy. It is the first known example of where people began to govern themselves. The democracy of Athens slowly developed around 500 BC, during the Classical

It is believed that Athenians established the term democracy. Athens was the most famous city in Greece and followed a system of popular government- rule by the people. Also, Rome adapted the system of popular government but they renamed it a ‘republic. Romans never adopted a representative government based on democratically elected representatives. It is questionable

During the Golden Age in Greece, many things changed. Things that changed were the diversity of political views and the social doings of the Athenians and the organization of the Athenians economy. With the Golden Age, many groups worked together that wouldn’t normally interact. The biggest example of that is the relationship between Athenians and their democracy.