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Classical Athens Dbq

Decent Essays

When evaluating the government of ancient Athens, some might say that it was a democracy, however, it can be better described as an oligarchy: a form of government in which a small group of people has the power and control (Doc. D by Mogens Herman Hansen). A democracy takes all the citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account, unlike an oligarchy that only takes the male citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account. Thus, Athens is more similar to an oligarchy than a democracy. The people of Athens also decide as a whole what the best government for their city-state was, as opposed to a democracy where the people elect representatives to make decisions for them and their city-state. Athens could be seen as not a true democracy because of the lack of basic democratic rules and methods such as what they define democracy as, who is able to vote, and how they vote.
Democracy: government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is to veste in the people and exercised directly by them or by the agents they elect under a free electoral system (Dictionary.com). The definition given by Pericles states that they “favor the many instead of the few,” (Doc. A by Pericles) This would be accurate if they …show more content…

A by Pericles). However, the data collect by Professor Josiah Ober in 2010 states that the only people who can vote are the citizen men which contradicts Pericles’ previous statement. The rest of the citizens did not have the ability to vote and the slaves’ poverty prohibits them from voting as well. Keeping in mind that both these statements are from different time periods, Professor Josiah is still is very credible and trustworthy source for information seeing as he is teaching at Stanford University. Overall, ancient Athens is not truly democratic due to the small percentage of citizens who are able to

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