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The Democracy Of Ancient Greece And Greek Democracy

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The Democracy of Ancient Greece was used heavily in creating modern American Democracy. From the system of creating new laws to the checks and balances that define the American government. The similarities show that the founders of America based the new democratic government on the Ancient Greek democracy that came two millennia earlier. The American government was mainly based of Greek democracy.
In 510BCE the Peisistratid tyrants were expelled from Athens which resulted in a power struggle between the ruling body of nobles (Hansen). Then in 507BCE a political figure named Cleisthenes radically changed the Athenian Constitution to be based around democracy. This won against the Persian onslaughts in 490BCE (Cartledge). Athenian male …show more content…

Judicial review was formed by the Athenian democratic government by having jurors look over decrees to ensure they don’t contradict current decrees (Thorney).
On September 17, 1787 the founders of the United States’ government created the Constitution that set up the American government. The Constitution’s seven basic principles are popular sovereignty, limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, judicial review, federalism, and individual rights. The United States government is made of three main branches the legislative, the executive, and the judicial that balance each other out. An American citizen can bring an idea to congressmen who will debate on the idea and pass it on to become a law. The American government’s main purpose is to protect the citizens’ rights.
The American government’s three branches of government are based on Athenian government’s three institutions. The legislative branch resembles the Council of the 500 in the sense that they decided on decrees to then be passed to the Assembly for approval. The judicial branch is based on the People’s Court were the jurors were chosen at random. The American citizen must serve as the jury in at least one trial. The Supreme Court reviews laws to ensure they don’t contradict the Constitution this is based on the People’s Court who look over decrees to ensure they don’t

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