The Athenian Democracy Compared to Today's Democracy

There will always be conflicting viewpoints between the citizens of whom are governed by the same people regardless of the type of government being discussed. There are many contrasting views on Athenian democracy; however, some of the strength’s and weaknesses present in Athenian democracy hold similarities to the democracy we are today. “Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves,” (68). Pericles (ca. 495-429 B.C.E.) was a famous Athenian figure and political leader who wrote the speech called, “Pericles’ Funeral Oration,” to honor the fallen soldiers. A large piece of his speech was used to praise the Athenian democratic constitution.

Ancient Greece was consisted of many city-states; the most famous were Athens and Sparta. Those two rival cities had an opposite political system as well, democracy on the one hand and dictatorship on the other. Of course both systems, as anyone can see, included many inequalities between citizens.

Democracy; coming from the Greek word, Demokratia, meaning rule by the people. Today’s definition of democracy is that it is a government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. If this was the definition back in the times of ancient Athens, they were nowhere near democratic. Yes, for the most part, Athens was ruled by the people, but more often than not the power of the people would be taken away or restricted. Athenians were not democratic because of this reason.

Voting has been in effect after the revolutionary war but was restricted to only white males for many years. Different people from other ethnic groups such as African-Americans, Asians, and others born in the United States back in the day, were unable to vote. They had no voice in presidential races; women were even singled out. African American got their right to vote with the 15th Amendment. On June 4, 1919, congress passed the right to vote for women and ratified the constitution, the 19th amendment. Voting is a right that all Americans should have no matter

The Athens law that allows every single man of Athens to share and glorifies their superiority over their peer poleis. In reality, the Democracy in Athens are made of Three Branches. The Assembly (Ekklesia) states that all male citizens over 18 met ten times a year and can make executive decisions like declaring war and create laws. The Assembly contradicts Pericles’ speech since it only allow white males (not slaves) to create laws and make executive decisions.

The western democracy model was created by Athenian Greeks. Majority ruled through random selection from volunteers. Separation of powers existed, but checks and balances heavily relied on throwing lots. The Romans sought to move away from monarchial models of government and erected a Republic. Rather than an assembly, the Romans had a Senate. Unfortunately, the separation of powers lacked checks and balances. Or more accurately stated, a reputable form of checks and balances. Julius Caesar was assassinated by Senators after declaring himself as life-long dictator. They had deemed the only solution to prevent tyranny and war was to kill Caesar. As a result, the United States has enacted this principle in the Constitution, no individual – citizen,

Although democracy can be traced back to Ancient China and Mesopotamia, the modern form that we follow today originated in Athens, Greece (“Democracy”). Democracy comes from the Greek word ‘demokratia’, which means people power. At the time, when Athens was ruled under a tyrannical dictatorship, a learned man named Cleisthenes spread the idea of people sharing power with the rulers, across Athens. The idea

This source is written by the ABC; the ABC is a government funded organization so it is assumed that the website has acquired the information from reputable sources, therefore making the source somewhat reliable. The source also corroborates with (What did democracy really mean?, 2015) on the points of the rules and policies in Athens specifically that Athens had a council of 500 and the facts on Ancient Greece’s judicial system therefore as the information is justified it makes the information is more trustworthy. The source did not provide a specific author and only stated the corporate author although the ABC is generally a reputable source as the author is not stated it makes the source less reliable as the authors background academic experience is not specified.

Democracy is an organization of an authority of the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. This democracy evoked by having thoughts, discussing issues, & finding explanations. For example, the United States, Germany, and Mexico are a democrat state because they can vote and also have civil rights. The time period of the starting point of the democracy was in 4th-5th century. Therefore, Ancient Athens was truly a limited democratic state. I will be stating events that makes this true. In addition, Athenian democracy was the first known democratic country in the world. The first leader was Pericles. However, this democracy excluded 88% of the community. It was settled by a certain group

The classical model of Democracy was set up in 300 BC by the Athens. All male citizens would directly make laws and decide jury trials in the Athenian Democracy. The Athenian democracy would have yearly elections to see who would take on the important government positions. For the rest of the potions, they would draw lots to see who would fill them. Plato’s’ view of democracy was that rationally can only be achieved through education. His ultimate goal was to maintain and extend the society. However, Aristotle, Plato's student who read his book the “Republic” had a different view on Democracy; he believed rationality could be achieved through experience. The United States Constitution has used Aristotle’s and Plato’s’ classical democracy model

Athens sought out to uphold the ideals that they had established for a citizen ruled government so as to avoid the shortcomings that spawned from the rule of unjust kings and dictators. Athens established democracy as the ruling government in the 4th and 5th century, being a democracy entailed that the masses held power over the city-state.The ancient Greeks held different views that the modern world does not, thus, Athens was truly a democracy based on the values of the time period it was established.

We should view democracy less as a rigid definition of a system of governance, and more as a measurement of citizens' active participation in their government. If asked today to describe their government, many Americans would characterize it as a democracy. And if the ancient Athenians were asked the same question, a similar answer would be given. While the United States' and the ancient Athenians' systems of government are fundamentally different, I do not believe that these answers are at odds with each other. Look at the question most political scientists ask when studying regimes: "How democratic is this state?" This is fundamentally a question of where the regime falls on a spectrum of democracy. While the United States' and ancient Athens'

Democracy is a system of government in which power is vested in the people, who rule either directly or through freely elected representatives. Furthermore, the ordinary people must have a meaningful role in the formation of public policy. As Jensen mentioned, democracy comes from the Greek word demokratia; demos meaning people and kratos meaning rule.

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.

Democracy is the government plan that everyone is truly equal in power, no matter what you are like compared to other people. The creation of democracy is usually credited to ancient Greece, more specifically Athens, where it was known as “demokratia.” And yes, they may have not had much in the way of a leader, as they had a giant political debate with five hundred men instead, (and Pericles l guess) but today I’m going to show you why l think this is wrong.