Democracy And Government In Ancient Greece And The Western World Today

The concept of Democracy dates back to the Classic Period, otherwise known as the Golden Age of Greece. Prior to becoming a unified nation, Greece was made up of city-states that were constantly warring with one another. None of these city-states possessed full control over its neighbors. It was during this time and because of these circumstances that there was great advancement in Greek thought encompassing philosophy and politics. These advancements are responsible for the strong Greek

The society that we live in today was formed from of all of the good things from these various systems of government. Most scholars believe that democracy began an ancient Greece. Around 510 BCE the ancient Athenians invented democracy. In the Athenian democracy each year, 500 names were drawn from all the citizens of Athens. Those 500 citizens had to serve for one year as the law makers of ancient Athens. All citizens of Athens were required to vote on any new law that this body of 500 citizens created. One man, one vote, majority ruled. Women, children, and slaves were not citizens, and thus could not vote (Roots of Democracy). Greece was a collection of some 1500 separate communities scattered round the Mediterranean and Black Sea shores. At one point in ancient Greeks history there was almost 100 years serious civil unrest, but ostracisms fulfilled their functions of preventing a civil war (Democratic Experiment). Though the Greeks were recognized as being the inventors of democracy, they’re most recognized by the modern civilization for their artwork and architecture.

Ancient Greece was one of the first democratic societies and has greatly influenced modern day governments. Although the Greek idea of democracy is different from what is practiced today, their ideas formed the basis for modern democratic governments. Prior the invention of democracy, citizens had no rights and there were no guidelines for who was considered a citizen. Democracy gave voting rights and the ability to hold office to citizens – free men born in Greece, usually landowners. Today’s modern democracy is accessible to all people and has a higher degree of organization and hierarchy, it still derives its basic prinicples from Greek democracy.

Democracy, the form of government in which there is a rule by the people, is said to have originated and thrived in the classical period of Athens, from 500-350 B.C.. Democracy inherently gave all that were considered citizens power to participate in politics. That being said, it is highly debated as to how much power the people, also known as the demos, exercised in this democracy. Many practices and informal institutions can be said to have limited the power of the demos. The democracy in Athens could be said to have been a democracy in theory yet not in practice, as can be proven through a variety of primary sources recounting Athenian political institutions and practices. Such primary sources that can demonstrate this include Herodotus’ History, Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War, and Demosthenes’ Oration Against Eubulides.

The Archaic government of Ancient Greece and the Democratic government of the modern-day United States are very similar, for democracy originated from the Ancient Greek Archaic government; yet, their differences are quite note-worthy. To begin, we should recognize how the populace of the United States is considerably larger than that of Ancient Greece. Regardless, in Ancient Greece and in the United States, citizens were/are allowed to vote, although in Ancient Greece, but male citizens could vote; while unlike the United States, who lets all citizens over the age of 18 vote. In Ancient Greece the eligible were all treated equally, and had direct participation in government, which meant that their single vote could either serve as deciding a new law, if they should go to war, or any other issue at the time. Furthermore, in Ancient Greece, citizens could act as judges, or even address new laws, freely, without consent. In contrast, the United States' voters all have elected participation in the government, which means that they elect like-minded representatives who decide on matters for them. In the United States' democracy voters cannot decide on issues, they let their elected leaders which comprise of three individual branches to

The Greeks where the first democracy in the world. There government was made up of six thousand members all of witch where male citizens. They voted on problems that needed to be solved and if a law was to pass a majority vote was needed. Now in the United States also has a democracy. Instead of having six thousand people voting and making the decisions all the people vote on a representative that makes the decisions in the country.

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.

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

Ancient Greece was famous for its art and ideas. Greek people were very creative in great epics, history, dramas, philosophy, science, mathematics, and medicines. The ancient Greece was covered with mountains, rocky hills, and narrow valleys. Greek later became educated about trading with the Mediterranean. Modern Democracy is more concerned about peace, division of power and providing equal rights of every citizen of a country however, in the ancient Greece was involved with war among the state, misuse of political power, discriminate slaves and poor farmers.

By definition, democracy is a type of political system in which all members share the same level of power, but it is also the framework for the government of multiple countries including the United States of America. Athenian democracy, created near 400 B.C. in Athens, Greece, was a direct system where participating citizens had the opportunity to vote directly on legislative and executive bills. The founding fathers of the United States took the Athenian’s idea and created the idea of “representative democracy”, where the citizens of a nation were able to elect representatives who would make decisions for them. In fact, the United States could be considered to be more of a constitutional republic than democracy, since the Athenian democracy that influenced them is not a “true democracy”. Even though differences between the two governments exist, ancient Athenians heavily influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States of America to form a democratic government, allow representatives to vote on legislation, and to provide equality and fair trials to their people.

So that is the greeks influenced modern American. They also influenced a lot more things. The greeks was pretty cool, because they came up with a lot of thing that we use today. So we should tell them thank

Greek democracy was best developed in the city-state of Athens from where the very word “democracy”, meaning “the rule of the people” stems. People ‘ruled’ by electing officials through lot and making important decisions by majority rule. Democracy was direct, meaning that the Athenians “allowed the whole citizenry to assemble in the central eklisia, or the equivalent today of the main city hall, to vote on important issues” (Makedon 1995). In this sense, Athenian democracy differed from representative democracy that is currently prevalent in most states, in which officials are elected through democratic vote and then given authority to make decisions for the people. In Athens, elected officials were paid, but the pay was very low so that it compared with the wages of the poorest citizens and only covered the compensation of their time and effort.

Most of the fundamental element of European countries and The United State Follow Ancient Greece. Democracy, Economics, philosophy, Sculpture and the Olympic games were started from Ancient Greece were located from east to Persian empire, from south to Egypt civilization and from west to the ancient Romans. I am thinking Ancient Greece influenced by neighbors. The ancient Greeks wanted to know how the universe works, it was like as these days in the united estate which we hearing new discovery every day. To probe such questions, the Greeks turned to philosophy, mathematics, and science. The Greeks were the first in the West to experiment with the concept of democratic government. European and the united state and most successful modern democratic

During the Golden Age in Greece, many things changed. Things that changed were the diversity of political views and the social doings of the Athenians and the organization of the Athenians economy. With the Golden Age, many groups worked together that wouldn’t normally interact. The biggest example of that is the relationship between Athenians and their democracy.

one essential conviction, expressed in the word democracy itself: that power should be in the hands of the people. Although democracy today has been slightly inefficient in this idea, with the wealthy, elite class challenging this right, “it nevertheless claims for itself a fundamental validity that no other kind of society shares….” To completely understand the structure of democracy, one must return to the roots of the practice itself, and examine the origins in ancient Greece, the expansion in the Roman Empire, and how these practices combined make what we recognize as today’s democratic government.