Democracy: The Role Of Democracy In Ancient Greece

The Greeks created first democracy in the world. People voted for their leaders, and were involved in public life. Greeks philosopher provided the origin of western philosophy, medicine, and natural sciences. Greek architecture is evident in every court in the U.S. Greeks invented drama. Drama is the form of tragedy and comedy. Minoan culture around (2000 B.C.E. - 1400 B.C.E.) was earliest civilization in the Aegean region emerged on the large island of Crete. By 2800 B.C.E., to make weapons they used metals, especially bronze. Minoan had many trade networks. The peasant paid high taxes. Mycenaean culture around (1600 B.C.E- 1100 B.C.E.) was highly militaristic society. The king collected taxes and controlled bronze and wooden production. The

The political organization that prejudiced western civilization the most was Athens, where direct democracy was formed. Democracy developed in Athens in the 500s with a lot of conflict and uneasiness at the time. Time after time of trying to achieve peace, improving rulers slowly allowed citizens to take part in the city-state’s government. A series of improvements took power from multiple noble families and gave it to the citizenry. The government of Athens incorporated three major bodies: the Assembly, the Council of 500, and the People’s Court. While Athenians experienced direct democracy, the Romans established the form of government known as a republic—a form of government where the elected officials govern the state and are responsible

Direct democracy derives its power from citizens debating and voting directly on all laws and policies. Ancient Greek City-State portrayed direct democracy by allowing the legislature to be made up of all the citizens. To add, women, foreigners, and slaves were excluded because they weren’t citizens. Furthermore, participation is key, concluding that direct democracy is carried out most easily in small political communities. Due to spread of democratic policies, representative democracy was established. It’s defined as a form of government in which citizens elect a representative to take charge of all laws and policies. Elections are held for government officials, universal suffrage allows all adults to take action and vote for their representative.

In the first section of the chapter describing ancient Greece, Paul Cartledge explains that researchers know how and in what way the ancient Greeks surrendered in battle, but do not know exactly why they surrendered since they did not keep a comprehensive account of their surrenders. Cartledge goes on to describe ancient Greece, not as a single political body, but being composed of one thousand separate, widely dispersed entities known as city-states. Some of these city-states, including Athens and Sparta, were radically different from each other. But according to Herodotus, these separate states were all united under their decent, linguistics, customs, and religion, but divided because of politics and self-differentiation. It was the disuniting factors that caused these states to fight among one another and other non-Greek states. Cartledge mentions he based most of this chapter off of the writings of two men from two different wars: Thucydides from the Peloponnesian War and Herodotus from the Persian Wars. According to him, the ancient Greeks typically identified themselves by their state name first and then as being Greek second. But under the Persian Wars, the Greeks united to fight off the Persian invaders. The author finishes the section by describing Greek culture and customs not just from the Greeks themselves, but from other outsiders as well. These outsiders, such as the Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, and Persians, influenced the Greeks in culture, military,

Introduction: It is believed that Ancient Athens was the first form of democracy that influenced the structure of democracy today. Ancient Greece had many different forms of government within its nation. Most of these government parties are dramatically different from one another. The most contrasting forms of government listed here are democracy and tyranny. This essay will explore the contrast between monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy and democracy.

About 500 BCE, the Greek city-states or poleis were still largely divided. They had a common language and culture, but they were very often rivals. Some years earlier, Athens implemented a socio-political innovation by which all free male citizens had equal rights regardless of their origin and fortune. They named it democracy. Before the time of democracy, government decision-making was in the hands of a few, often aristocratic and noble families. Democracy allowed all free citizens to be part of the important decisions of the polis. They could engage in the discussions held during deliberative assembly and tribunals, their voices could be heard everywhere and had the same value as any other voice. In this context, speech was king: being able

The legacies of Greek and Roman democracies have influenced many aspects of our government today. Citizenship in Greece included privileges such as protection as well as responsibilities. That concept is largely the same in our government today. We as citizens can vote and elect leaders, and are provided with services such as infrastructure and an educational system. In return, we pay taxes and are required to show up to court when summoned. Another aspect of Greek government which is present today is representation based on population. States such as Alaska, while large, has far fewer representatives than a small but densely populated state such as New Jersey. One more idea that carried over was equal protection

Ancient Greeks like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are often associated with democracy. These popular Greek thinkers were also unapologetically elitist. All of their theories of human nature were less than flattering. Each philosopher strongly criticized democracy. They claimed government was inherently corrupt and inefficient. Along with Rome, Ancient Greece is often heralded as a bastion of democracy. The government of Athens was supposedly a precursor to the governments we practice today. The American framers, we are wantonly informed, were heavily influenced by Greek democratic ideals. To some extent, this is true; but the most prominent Greek thinkers—the ones most of us are still familiar with today—actually strongly disliked democracy.

The Greeks, despite never being lead by a single leader are known as a single people. This is due to the culture that was spread across the landmass of Greece being so similar to each other but yet the individuals are still highly memorable. Even someone who has not heard of Socrates, the Persian Wars, or Sparta can recognize things that were heavily inspired by the Greeks. In which I believe the political system of democracy, the taking down of history, and way that battles in war occur are the most prominent. In this paper, I will be attempting to cover these ideals in great detail in an attempt to educate you over this rather mythical topic.

Before there were any democracies, Greece was a monarchy. The citizens of Greece did not have the same rights as we do today. For example, before there were any democracies, citizens had no say in decision making, no adult citizens had voting rights, and women weren’t even considered true citizens!

Democracy first appeared in Ancient Greece, in the political hive known as Athens. It soon caught on and was widely used by the whole Greek country. Granted, there were some opposers, such as Plato. Plato thought that everything about the idea of Democracy was just complete HE THOROUGHLY DISLIKED DEMOCRACY BECAUSE IT WAS HIS OWN OPINION. The reasoning behind that thinking? He thought that letting the Citizens decide would be giving the power to the masses and they’d use it for personal matters other than the general good. He also attacked Athenian Democracies for being Libertarian societies where anarchy is mistaken for freedom. Democracy WAS UNUSED AND NOT INCREDIBLY POPULAR until the 1600’s. Even still, in the 1600’s only 10~ societies

Ancient Greece and Rome are the two most influential cultures that contributed to the modern day world in the areas of government, architecture and entertainment. The Greeks created the idea of democracy, which is used in 123 of the 192 countries in the world today. Unlike Greece, Rome began as a monarchy then adapted into a republic. Greek society is not only the birthplace of democracy, but also of architecture. Being the patrons of columns, domes and temples, many ancient societies based their own architectural styles off of them. Nevertheless the Romans were one of them, they adapted the use of columns and were the first civilization to use arches in their designs. Entertainment played large rolls in ancient Greece and Rome. The Greeks

Athens had a democracy, and is known as being the “birthplace” of democracy. Five thousand men would be narrowed down to 500, then divided into groups of 50, who would take turns being in charge. Generals and these groups could propose laws and assess voting (Knights). However, only about 10% of the population had voting rights, pure Athenian men over 18, excluding women, slaves and the foreign born. Anyone who was present on the day of voting could raise their hands and vote and the decision made that day was final. They could also vote to eliminate anyone they felt was becoming too powerful which protected them against tyrants, but also limited their freedom of speech for fear of being exiled. Athenian government was also only open to those of the highest standing for the same reason as Sparta (Cartwright, Athenian Democracy).

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.

According to Brand (2010) there were very different political models in ancient Sparta and Athens. Indeed, he advises that Athens was a much more developed powerhouse, where today’s democracy initiated, whereby Sparta was, conversely, a fierce warmongering state where only male warriors participated in politics. However, Brand also acknowledges elements of democracy in both city states.