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. When events like this would occur, Professor Hansen knows best about it. “It is less democratic by narrowing down the concept of demos. . .” (Doc
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, as it is used today, means “ the people rule.” A democracy is a form of government ruled by the people of the country through elections and representation. A democracy is really a form of republic known as a democratic republic. A republic is a government where officials elected by a small group of people that make the important decisions.
Greece was one of the first people to have recorded the events of their democratic system. Democracy is a Greek word literally meaning the power of the people to rule. Early democracy was established in ancient Athens, a Greek city-state, and was probably the single most powerful and stable democratic government in Greece.
If the city-state is ruled by many or a large people, we say it is a democracy. Athens was a root of democracy in ancient Greece, which was ruled by many citizens. Monarch (one) and oligarchy (few) were from Greek words "kratos" which means political regime. Democracy (many) was from " arche" which also means regime. Another word which represents few people is aristocracy.
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 Greeks invented and used democracy. The word itself means rule of the people in greek. Democracy allowed for men, poor or rich, to be able to vote. Democracy became quite popular until the Romans’ and their republic. Later to be received in the Middle Ages and then again by the French and Spanish.
Fittingly, democracy (unlike tyranny and monarchy) is governance by the people. Even though monarchy had the interests of the people in mind, the people did not participate in a voting system which determined decisions, like in democracy. Cleisthenes, who introduced political reforms in Athens and called them demokratia (“rule by the people”), was credited with unifying the classes of society within politics (History.com, n.d.). Even though this paved the way to define modern-day democracy, it was not truly comparable, since ancient Athenian democratic participation was limited to a very small portion of the overall population (History.com,
Democracy:is a system of government by the whole population or all of the eligible members of a state,typically through elected representatives. In the Roman Republic they were kind of a democratic because anyone who was in the democratic was allowed to vote. People who were picking the councilmen were able to know who be selected at the end and didn’t tell anyone until everyone was not voting anymore.If people did not live in the democracy they were automatically not able to vote nor would they still be in the democratic society. Democracy of historical of racism was a big deal back in the day because when people heard that there was a big problem
The word democracy derived in or around 508 B.C. by the Greek demos mean people and kratos mean to rule. Forming these two words together means rule of the people Athens known as the birthplace of democracy. Poleis ancient Greece independent city states, the most well-known Poleis would be Sparta. You had kings that served as the head Government while the citizens oversaw the kings. Philosophers from all over the Greek world gathered to develop their theories. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle believed the fundamental principle of the democratic form is liberty. There was criticism and pushback from The Athenian voting twice against democratic constitution. Peloponnesian War in 411 BCE was one main reason criticisms was placed on democracy. Within
Democracy, a government ruled by the voice of the people, was formed in the greek society
Democracy was one of the first political styles to make a lasting impression for civilization. Monarchies and Tyrannies were not as successful. Monarchies started to decline when wars during the Mycenaean Period collapsed many of the kingdoms. Tyrannies did not survive either because this type of government included, “sporadic periods of violent political and social upheaval” (McKay 44). Outlasting monarchies and tyrannies, a democracy is, “a type of Greek government in which all citizens, without regard to birth or wealth, administered the working of government; it translates as the power of people” (McKay 45). Although the definition says power of people, the only people with power at the time were free men. Slaves and women were considered to have no rights. Today democracy is seen as the right for all people to have a say in what kind of actions the government takes. It technically is people with power but the power is limited like it was in ancient Greece. If different types of governments were
Lastly we come to democracy. Cartwright(2014), defines Greek democracy as rule of the citizens, as the word is derived from demos - meaning the citizen body (Cartwright, 2014). This is in obvious contrast to the other forms of government in that the citizens (at least though considered free citizens) where the ruling party is the citizens themselves, and not a single ruler or priviledged
There will always be conflicting viewpoints between the citizens of whom are governed by the same people regardless of the type of government being discussed. There are many contrasting views on Athenian democracy; however, some of the strength’s and weaknesses present in Athenian democracy hold similarities to the democracy we are today. “Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves,” (68). Pericles (ca. 495-429 B.C.E.) was a famous Athenian figure and political leader who wrote the speech called, “Pericles’ Funeral Oration,” to honor the fallen soldiers. A large piece of his speech was used to praise the Athenian democratic constitution.
Democracy, in Greek, means “Power to the People”. In this system people vote for their president, choose from different parties.
Democracy in its simplest form comes from the Greek words ‘demos and ‘kratos’: ‘demos’ which is taken to indicate the people and ‘kratos’ which means to rule. Democracy thus means rule by