Evolution Of Athenian Democracy Essay

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.

Athens’ governmental shift in 501 BC was unprecedented and innovative, being the first notable implementation of democracy in an ancient world inundated in monarchy. This form of government, founded by Cleisthenes, has been instrumental in Western Civilization, especially since the modern age. Democracy gave Athens life, providing not only a well functioning governing system, but also enabling the city-state to grow and survive multiple Persian invasions. However, at the dawn of the Athenian empire and the rise of Pericles, democracy began to die, and Greeks lost their love of freedom when they sought power and glory through their military conquests. I argue that Athenian’s rejection of democracy can be seen through their

During the dawn of the Greek civilization, rulership consisted of one king that rule the entire occupied land. Such system included only family members, tribe members, and wealthy individuals to receive whatever good the empire had to offer. It took many years until new reforms came about in regards of rulership. The Athenian democracy was developed by the efforts of the leaders and philosophers who were encouraged to think and answer the why freely. Although it was called a democratic system, only male citizens had the opportunity to participate. In this essay, I will discuss how the Athenian democratic system was developed, why, and the efforts of the Greek thinkers in developing the Athenian democracy. Additionally, we will have the chance to examine if it was truly democratic.

The first evidence of democracy, government in which the citizens had a say in the rulings, was discovered in Ancient Athens. However, the direct democratic system seemed so successful that it overshadowed the Athenian’s views towards the power of their government. Through close examination of the writings of Sophocles and Plato, one can discover the that the Athenian’s thoughts regarding the governing power, evolved during Classical Athens’s 200 year span. Although at a glance the government of Ancient Athens did not seem to progress much during it’s time, a deeper look at Sophocles’ Antigone, written in 441 BCE, and Plato’s Crito, written in 360 BCE, reveal that the Athenian attitudes toward the authority of the state appeared to evolve even within eighty years.

In this work, Aristotle describes and evaluates political systems in order to determine the best possible constitution. In the studied passage, Aristotle describes a Spartan society entirely geared towards warfare, to the point that Spartans were inexperienced in other domains: unable to manage public finances and, above all, unable to rule the empire they crafted by armed force. Aristotle is a contemporary source to the system he describes, but his statements should be tackled with a degree of caution. First, the source is written from an Athenian point of view: Aristotle probably echoed the representations that circulated among Athenians about Sparta, a rival city-state. Moreover, he took his main argument from Plato, who similarly criticised Spartan lawgiver. Second, Aristotle’s aim is not to provide a historical account, but to contrast several constitutions – making, necessarily, simplifications to theorise Spartan society as a political system, and possibly indulging in some exaggerations to serve his argument. However, as surviving literary sources were mostly written by non-Spartans, it is difficult to evaluate Aristotle’s statements and their degree of correctness. Aristotle’s writings have contributed to shape a fantasised image of Sparta as an exceptional militarist Greek city, which both saved and

Blackwell, C. W. (2003, February 28). Athenian Democracy: A brief overview. Retrieved June 22, 2016, from http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/article_democracy_overview?page=all&greekEncoding

This transformation of Athens, from the views of Tellus to the views of Pericles, from a comparatively traditional and simple society to modern and complex, was in large part a result of both empire and democracy. Herodotus had recognized that freedom, choice, and equality, the trademarks of democracy, had resulted in a remarkable growth of Athenian military volume (5.78.1). Meanwhile, Cleisthenes’ democratic reforms resulted in a new organizational system. By interlocking local networks into a greater multi-political network, that system permitted Athens to transcend the limits of authoritative methods that are dependent upon the personal knowledge typical of a small society, such as Tellus’. As the new democratic system was put into effect,

Members were over the age of sixty and therefore no longer on active military duty (Adams,2010,p.2). Members were elected by the Assembly when one of the twenty-eight spots became open. The five Ephors, or overseers, were annually elected by the Assembly and according to Brand, (n.d.), worked closely with the Gerousia to govern the populace. Non-aristocratic citizens could be elected to the position of Ephor and served as a balance of power.

Athenian democracy did not evolve over night; it was the product of need for change. During the 6th century BC Athens was recovering from a dark period of internal class conflicts after being subject to tyrannical rulers for over half a century. This was a time when farmers and merchants were faced with paying excessive taxes, had no representation or power at governing level and at times sold themselves in order to pay back their depts. Democracy came about because of an outcry for political freedom and it is precisely this inequality that sparked the first reforms in Ancient Athens. Solon introduced certain reforms in Athens that paved the way for the development of democracy.

The original idea of democracy came from Athens, and it has definitely affected the way our democracy in America is today, but Ancient Athens was not a true democracy. Women had no say in government or public life wither. They were expected to stay indoors all the time and weave or take care of farm animals. Also, people who were not born in Athens but lived there were not allowed to vote and same goes for the slaves. The slaves had no political rights or freedom. Those three groups were not allowed to have a say in the government and in a real democracy everyone is equal and participating.

Ancient Greece, not being able to settle on the best way to govern, instituted several vastly different political structures across ancient Greek city-states. They equally contributed to the cultural change in the overall region’s history as well as the history of governments across the world. In this paper, I will compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy, which will also provide insight at which influential characteristics of these governments are still present in modern-day politics.

The Athenian political system in Ancient Greece was a significant and effective reform that kept them stable for many years. Firstly, the ancient Athenians had a democratic practice called ostracism; to rid Athens of anyone who may possibly become a tyrant. “For almost 100 years ostracism fulfilled its function of aborting serious civil unrest or even civil war” (BBC). This was an effective method to insure that tyranny would never take place in Athens; and also sending a message that such actions are unacceptable. Secondly, ancient Athens also had a Council of 400, who acted as a court of judgement. “One hundred citizens from each of the four traditional tribes of Athens were elected annually and met regularly to prepare legislation to be

The democracy in Ancient Greek civilization claims the distinction of developing the first democracy in a country. The word democracy, meaning “rule of the people,” comes from the Greek words demos, meaning “people,” and kratos, meaning “power.” Different types of governments that the Athens used are monarchy, aristocracy, and oligarchy. Athens was one of the largest and most powerful city in Greece. Citizens were allowed to make different types of decisions in Athens. Only the males in Athens were allowed to vote or help make the choices. The citizens

Democracies have always leaned naturally towards smaller groups of individuals, as governing democratically becomes increasingly more difficult as feelings of unity go incrementally sparse the large a community becomes. Forms of rule such as monarchy and oligarchy flourish more in urban communities with a concentrated large population as it feels increasingly natural to remove filters or layers on what the ruling class wants done on basis of convenience. The first formal democracy originated in Athens from a swath of socioeconomic problems birthed from a ruling aristocracy that abused and enslaved the common people. To calm contesting factions after the civil unrest it was decided that political privileges would be distributed “on the basis of productive wealth rather than noble birth.” The solution was a democracy whose prime characteristic was being greatly direct in its workings.

As Americans, we sometimes have a hard time picturing what life was like before the United States was ever founded. While we have so many ways of looking back on history, getting facts, and information it is much more different than having had to experience it all on our own, first hand. However, what we do know is that much of our own practices and traditions come from the cultures that we wanted to break away from.