Changes in Democracy: from Early Athenian to Present Day Politics

The word democracy comes from two Greek words: demos, meaning "the people," and kratein, meaning "to rule." These two words are joined together to form a democracy, literally meaning "rule by the people". Nowadays democracy could be referred as a rule of the majority. It is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or choose delegates from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. The Greek system of government was maybe more like a true democracy or administered by the general population than any other ever. On the other hand, most American politicians with mindfulness and knowledge have realized that the U.S. is not a Democracy as a country, regardless of the way that most people declare it to be a Democracy. Greek and American democracy have some similarities such as the amount of nationalism and patriotism saw in the people when a lack of representation for a city-state or nation as a whole is seen, and they both vote for their political leaders.

The term democracy comes from the Greek language and means "rule by the people."(Democracy Building 2012) The democracy in Athens represents the events leading up to modern day democracies. Like our modern democracy, the Athenian democracy was created as a reaction to a concentration and abuse of power by the rulers. Philosophers defined the essential elements of democracy as a separation of powers, basic civil rights, human rights, religious liberty and separation of church and state. The most current definition of a democracy is defined as 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

What is democracy, do we really understand the concept and the implications of the freedoms that our society enjoys. Democracy by definition is a “government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections”.(1) The United States democracy in current times can be a difficult situation to grasp, due to the fact that we are operating off of the Constitution written over 200 years ago, and individuals modern

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.

The athens lived their lives as an oligarchy. According to The Athenian Constitution “The franchise is open to all men who are of citizen and birth by both parents.” This means that women or anyone else except for men who were citizens could not vote whatsoever. In document A it says “That their constitution favors many instead of the few”. Although Women, Children of citizens, Metics,

Democracy gives people equal rights to live in the government they live in. Original thoughts and ideas came from Athens. Although citizens had the ability to participate in the government; was not a completely democratic states. Slavery is what gave others the time to contribute to the government. Those not born in Athens that lived there were not considered citizens and were not allowed to play a part in choosing how their home was governed.

Monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy all have had their time and place in form of government in Ancient Greek city-state. Each concentrated on a very different mix between individual leader and group voting on every decision a city-states took.

Originating from the Greek terms demos, meaning ‘people’ and kratos, meaning ‘rule,’ democracy essentially means to ‘rule by the people’ (Hague and Harrop, 2013, p. 43).

The rise of democracy in Athens started when a man named Solon overturned something that was named the Draconian law. Draconian law was mainly focused its punishment on debtors, and even forced them to become basically slaves, but with its annulment, the debts were gone and slaves were set free. Solon presented a board of 400 hand-picked proprietors, which introduced policy, but these policies could be prevented by the citizens. After Solon’s restructuring, the oppressor Pisistratus governed over the Athenians. While he did as he wanted, he managed to keep the peace between the three main groups of citizens under his rule. He was particularly supported by the farmers because his main focus was agricultural advancement. After this, Pisistratus’

This source is written by the ABC; the ABC is a government funded organization so it is assumed that the website has acquired the information from reputable sources, therefore making the source somewhat reliable. The source also corroborates with (What did democracy really mean?, 2015) on the points of the rules and policies in Athens specifically that Athens had a council of 500 and the facts on Ancient Greece’s judicial system therefore as the information is justified it makes the information is more trustworthy. The source did not provide a specific author and only stated the corporate author although the ABC is generally a reputable source as the author is not stated it makes the source less reliable as the authors background academic experience is not specified.

Athens sought out to uphold the ideals that they had established for a citizen ruled government so as to avoid the shortcomings that spawned from the rule of unjust kings and dictators. Athens established democracy as the ruling government in the 4th and 5th century, being a democracy entailed that the masses held power over the city-state.The ancient Greeks held different views that the modern world does not, thus, Athens was truly a democracy based on the values of the time period it was established.

“Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like painkiller X and Y. But they’re both just aspirin.” Defining democracy itself is a formidable task. What is democracy? I would simply label it as equality; however is everyone in the world politically equal? Nor America or Britain are fully democratic, nevertheless to my disappointment I firmly believe that the British political system is massively more open to corruption than the Americans and we should be taking advice from our foreign cousins.

Confidence, the quality or state of being certain, was a foundation involved in the creation of the world's first democracy, in ancient Athens. Cleisthenes created a voting system in which citizens voted on issues using pebbles, white meaning yes and black meaning no. The physical act of allowing the citizens of Athens to cast a vote in the matters involving the community required Cleisthenes to have confidence in the public's ability to make the right decisions, further increasing their governmental authority. Themistocles persuaded Athenians to spend a great amount of money for the purpose of war against the Persians, using new and improved equipment like the triremes, specialized ships that could collide with other ships, without obtaining

In Ancient Greece, from the time of 800B.C. to 150B.C., mathematics was going through large amounts of progressive advancement and stimulating intellectual investigation. “People asked questions and wondered about life. They also pondered the meaning of existence and wether it held any significance beyond what they could see before them.” The people during this time would gather together, share wine, and discuss the wonders of the world. This leisure time occurred because of the back breaking work of the countless slaves— that made up the majority of the population of Greece.

Democracy is, and will always be, as one of America’s past presidents Abraham Lincoln stated in his Gettysburg Address, “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” The exact definition for democracy is a system of government by the whole population of a state, typically through elected members. The original idea of democracy that America’s Founding Fathers promoted has shifted throughout the years. America was founded on the principles of freedom and liberty and many of these freedoms and liberties are being stripped away, or are at risk of being stripped away, by the American government. America is no longer a democracy, but it is an oligarchy.