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
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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
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 a system of government by the whole population or all eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. These members have the rights to vote, have well-paying jobs, and be able to serve their country during a war. However, in ancient Athens only a very small population of citizens had the rights to do these things. In ancient Athens, the Athenian government was not truly Democratic because only a little population of citizens could vote, the city can decide whether or not you have the right to be a citizen, and only a few citizens had the full amount of rights.
There are other reasons why Athens is truly not a democracy. They did not let women, children of citizens, metics, and slaves vote. This was made up of 88% or 210,335 of the population (Document C). Demokratia was ruled by male citizens only, excluding minors and women, free foreigners
I think that the ancient Athens was a democratic city. The reason that I believe that it’s a
Was ancient Athens truly democratic? Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. I believe that ancient Athens supported the early stages and development of democracy. Ancient Athens contributed many thoughts, and ideas to help form the idea of a democracy.(Doc A & B) Some of these ideas and thoughts where our constitution favors the many instead of the few, social class is not allowed to interfere with someone’s merit, and the franchise is open to all men who are of citizen birth by both parents. These are all examples of how they followed democracy, and contributed to its development.
First of all, Ancient Greece was not a democracy because there were no records to show if people were of citizen birth or of age, such as a birth certificate like we have today. To solve this problem, the current Greek citizens got to vote if the potential voter was of age. As stated in Document B, “... current citizens give their votes first on whether the new candidates appear to be of the age set by the law.” After the current voters got to decide if the potential voters were of age, they voted on whether the new supposedly of-age males were of citizen birth, meaning if both parents were citizens. Also stated in Document B, “... the current citizens give their votes on whether the candidate is free born, and has two citizen parents as the
A democracy is a type of government in which each eligible member of a state can vote. But this was not the case in the Athenian way of democracy, this is because rights were only given to adult male citizens making it was very limited for Athens population. Here are the reasons as to why the Athenian way of democracy was not truly a real democracy.
Was ancient Athens truly democratic? The definition of “democratic” by Google definitions is “favoring or characterized by social equality.” I support that ancient Athens was democratic, because it’s a lot like the United States, and we are a democratic society. A question pondered down through history about ancient Athens is “were they a true democracy?” I believe yes they were. One example is citizens were allowed to vote. If a person was not a citizen, they would have to appeal to the low-courts. If the courts decided that a person had no right to be a citizen, the person was sold as a slave. However if the person won, he or she had a right to be a citizen without any further questions. Also, citizens could vote for various offices. For
Athens wasn’t a democracy facts prove that it was actually an oligarchy. Facts can prove that by the pieces of evidence gathered together that Athens isn’t truly democratic. These facts are proven in the paper our teacher gave us. In fact,it actually goes to show examples on how Athens was oligarchy. This paper will prove it by using the info we got.
In ancient Athens there was no democracy because democracy means being ruled by all the people but in ancient Athens only men were allowed to vote. This was not democracy but oligarchy which means to be ruled by a few. Another reason that proves that ancient Athens was not democratic is, the people who weren't born there were not considered citizens until the age of 18, due to this they weren't able to vote, even if they were men. As you can see in Document C, you will notice that only 12% of their population was allowed to vote. This 12% is mad up of 29,900 men, I noticed that there was the same number of women in the population, yet none of them had a say in the matter of voting due to this fake democracy.
The ancient Athens can't truly be considered a democracy. A democracy states and means that all citizens are allowed to vote. According to the Athenian Constitution it states, “The present state of the constitution is as follows: The right to vote and participate in government is open
Today, much of the world’s governments have converted to democracies. In the Ancient World, there was only one truly notable example of a democratic society: The City-State of Athens. This is actually the birthplace of democracy, where instead of the rich or powerful ruling, it was the citizens of the city-state that held the power. This advanced way of government was so effective and well structured, it even laid the foundations for the development of our own democracy, right here in the United States, over 2,000 years in the future. Prior to Athens’s collapse during the Peloponnesian War, it truly had an efficient and very organized system of government.
Was ancient athens truly democratic?I believe that Athens was never a democracy, because democracy means rule by the people. But that seems like that never happened, for example everybody should be able to vote, but only 12% of greeks can vote.
Democracy was born in Athens and in its most pure form in history. One of the most unique characteristics was that the citizens of Athens were able to vote for the officials, contrary to the other forms of government that imposed them according to their convenience and based on their social and economic status. However, it is important to clarify that even though this governments were for the ‘people’ as the word ‘demos’ explains not all of the habitants of Athens were able to vote, among them were women, slaves, and metics that were not allowed to participate in this democracy. Athens only recognized native born adult males as qualifying voters and that is why the Democracy in this time is considered the
Was Ancient Athens truly democratic? Ancient Athens was not democratic, only male citizens were able to vote, excluding women, free foreigners and slaves, it was oligarchy, not democracy only 12% of the population are able to vote and they're all men, all military officers are elected by vote. All the magistrates that are responsible for the ordinary routine of administration are elected by lot in the assembly and the superintendent of the water supply is elected by vote, if a majority of people voted yes then they dispersed and resembled two months later. Second rule was exercised directly by the people, whereas democracy today means government by representatives of the people but today it’s more democratic by being government by the people