Athenian Democracy: Direct Democracy In Ancient Greece

Ancient Athens was not truly democratic because the middle class was in charge of politics. The upper and lower classes were not in politics at all. It was not democratic because the only people that could vote were men who are of citizen birth by both parents. People whose parent is a slave could not become a citizen so they could not vote. Democracy was excluding women, free foreigners and slaves.

The city-states of Ancient Greek provide examples of different types of government structures that, even

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.

The Demokratia system was comprised of three separate institutions the ekklesia, a sovereign governing body that wrote laws and dictated foreign policy; the boule, a council of representatives from the ten Athenian tribes; and the dikasteria, the popular courts in which citizens argued cases before a group of lottery-selected jurors. The Athenian democracy only survived for two centuries, Cleisthenes invention was one of ancient Greece’s most lasting contributions to the modern world. In Athens in the middle of the 4th century there were about 100,000 citizens. Athenian citizenship was limited to men and women whose parents had also been Athenian citizens, about 10,000 metoikoi, or “resident foreigners” and 150,000 slaves. Between those people the male citizens that were older than 18 were a part of the demos, which meant only about 40,000 people could participate in the democratic process.

A democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of the state. According to this definition, Athens was one of the best and first real democracies to exist in the world. Others might say that Athens was more an oligarchy or that they narrowed the meaning demos to mean adult male citizens as said in Document D by Professor Hansen. In my opinion, Athens was absolutely a democracy.

Direct Democracy change the way the Athenians lived because they now had a way of changing things with agreements. According to “Athenian Democracy Encyclopedia” most of the voting was done by a couple of people because the people who lived far away could not afford to get there. This

On account of Athens, the idea of a democracy, or as it was called then Demokratia, ensued. The idea of a rule of the people/eligible citizens that we now have today, in example America, was originated from this. This idea concocted by this ancient civilization, provides a sound foundation in which the current government called democracy in the world today.

The Athenians governmental system was a direct democracy. Five hundred individuals would be elected to lead the nation in everyone year. However, it is pointed out that the democracy at that time was not the same with the

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.

Research Question: How did Athens’ system of direct democracy contribute to the success of its military engagements during the 5th century?

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.

Therefore, any citizen could be involved in government despite being rich or poor. Citizens would then be able to decide on the policy initiatives directly. The development of democracy in ancient Greece was a system of direct democracy, in which there was a legislative council of five hundred, Assembly of Demos, and People’s Court. Also during the development of ancient Greece democracy, citizens were free Greek born men of the age 18 and older.

The ancient Athens government system is different, they had a direct democratic system. This system has been practiced for about 100 years in the Ancient Athens as an experiment. The direct democratic system works by adult citizens taking part of the government. Each year 500 names were drawn out of all citizens, these 500 citizens were to be responsible for making new laws and changing old laws. To make a new law Athens citizens would have to vote. In Athen, woman, children, and slaves didn't count as a citizen so they couldn’t participate in votes. This form of direct democracy ended after 100 years when Athens lost in the Peloponnesian War. Even after democracy ending in Ancient Athens democracy is still considered as one of the finest gifts

Was the ancient Athens that was so long ago democratic or was it not democratic?

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