The Pros And Cons Of Athenian Democracy

In Rome they had a very uniform and orgainized voting system.In document C it stated that the ruin of Athens was that they did not let the foreigners vote and calling them aliens. They also

I don't believe that Athens is truly a democracy. The way it was governed by only men proves my point that it wasn't a democracy. A Council of 500 citizens would make and debate on all the laws and decisions in Athens. That sounds like a good idea, but the Council of 500 is all men! Yes it’s a step forward in democracy but there is a lean in the way of the view of men and no view of a woman's perspective.

Since ; Athens was a democracy I feel that this better benefitted the citizens living their because it allowed citizens to vote for what they agreed with and what they opposed. For example in Document E it stated that there was an Athenian assembly and they had the power to pass laws, set budgets, and declare war. Whilst in Rome all of the decision making was in the hands of the Senates. All of this could not happen unless the Citizens came to vote. In Athens all forty thousand citizens were allowed to attend, however for some reason there was a shortage of citizens able attend at least six thousand have to be present to make important decisions . Voters had to make the treacherous trip to a hillside called the Pnyx near the Acroplois. Document B The Old oligarch was comparing Rome an Athens for instance it said "It is the poor man's fleet and

Ancient Athens prided itself upon being a democratic society, but was it really? It's true that it was ruled by the people, however only a small percentage of people. Document C states that only 12 percent of people actually vote. And who are those 12 percent? The 12 percent of the whole population that voted was men whose parents were both citizens of the city (see Document B). Slaves, women, and resident foreigners were barred from voting.

Government is a form of political structure that rules over a group of specific people and while stability is important, in most societies government is fluid in its form and changes over time. As different forms of government take power, typically the laws will favor one demographic over another. While the Athenian democracy favored the masses, oligarchic sympathizers like Pseudo-Xenophon, displayed their discontent with it. In his negative critique of Athenian democracy titled “The Constitution of the Athenians,” Pseudo-Xenophon supports the oligarchic system over the democratic one, yet still maintains a respect for the Athenian’s democracy as he comments on its longevity and stability. His commentary contrasts with the funeral oration that Pericles gave during a public funeral, where Pericles praises the strength of the Athenian democracy and its perseverance regardless of a plethora dead during the Persian Wars. Despite the differences, both as Pseudo-Xenophon and Pericles appeal to the political ideals of their audience while at the same time maintaining their own political beliefs.

I think that the Roman Republic was kinda democratic because of how the independent the constitution was. Only 2% of the citizens can vote which makes direct democracy nugatory for the best citizens the senator wants to get. The senate were the only ones to vote instead of the citizens that want to vote.

The Athenian democracy is discomforting for a contemporary American because of the personal rights citizens obtain today that Athenians do not, and because of the lack of greek legitimacy in their political system, due to rationality. However, the life of an Athenian is quiet interesting, in the way it allows us to view the positive and negative elements of the Athenian society, in contrast of today 's culture, from how it runs, how they studied Greek politics, their perspective of what a citizen should be and its responsibilities, and their acts of rationality.

The Roman Republic is very much different, but they do take the concept of voting in a different way. When the Republic Order was first created, its purpose was to create an ideal world order to discipline people

The Ekklesia was the assembly in Athens. It consisted only of men, they were able to make laws. The ordinary citizen in Athens was allowed to voice their views on certain matters. This allowed them to engage in debates around the laws of Athens and was a very different set up to how things were done in Sparta. The minimum number needed for a meeting to be viewed as valid was 6000 members. If the members were absent from the meeting with no legitimate reason for their absence, then they would be fined severely for not attending. The Thetes (serfs), the Zeugitai (ordinary soldiers), the Hippeis (horsemen) and Pentakosiomedimnoi (500-bushel men) were all members of the Ekklesia and most were part of the Boule. The Thetes were the only ones that were not part of the Boule but were part of the Ekklesia.

Throughout history we see the progression of democracy and the formation of institutions and laws to preserve certain rights we believe every citizen deserves in a democracy. The Athenian democracy was one the first radical democracies to be implemented in Greece; the citizens of Athens strongly believed in their democracy and worked very hard to preserve it’s essence or the ideas behind their democracy. The Athenian democracy was not a free for all instead it held in place a series of checks and balances to put the needs of the people before anything else. After major drawbacks and bumps along the road the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 BCE put in place three major major institutions that remained central to the governance of Athens. These

According to US History, “Only free, adult men enjoyed the rights and responsibility of citizenship. Only about 20 percent of the population of Athens were citizens,” (2014). In both systems, if you were not a free male born to that city, you had no say in the government. It is like our democratic system that he had incorporated in our country for the first one hundred years. Also, to the fact that all citizens were required to be on council, it led to a fact that Athens is, “likely to grind to a halt because of a minor disagreement in the citizen’s assembly or senate,”(Failure 2007). However, the Roman Republic voted in members, their system was less likely to fall apart, “ but also meant that the entire state would become more cumbersome when attempting to deal with democracy,” (Failure

In the classical period, Athens paved the way for future forms of government and established one of the earliest democracies. However, even though participation was made more accessible throughout the varying social classes, the reality of Athenian democracy was that limitations put in place by state and practice moulded the system into more of an accessible oligarchy than a rule by the people. As progressive as Athenian democracy was to its contemporary systems of government, in some ways, what was occurring in Athens was no more than an accessible oligarchy, and the groundwork for this was laid in the practice and principles of democracy itself. After overthrowing the dynasty of Pisistratus, Cleisthenes, a champion of the demos, set the stones for the first iteration of democracy (Herodotus 5.69). Throughout Attica, representatives from each of the ten clans would lead for

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,

Democracy is a system of government that is ruled by the whole of a population. This means each citizen has a say in what we do as a country. In ancient Athens, every citizen would gather in the main square to decide and argue about important issues. This is an example of direct democracy. In the United States, we have representative democracy, this means that we choose people to speak for us. In our country, both men and women are allowed to vote for the president or the members of our congress. However, in Athens only men were allowed to vote. According to Professor Josiah Ober of Stanford University, men made up 12% of the population in Athens. This means that women, children, and slaves were not able to vote, that’s 88% of their population.

Thank you for your insights. I agree with you that Athenian democracy cannot be compared to today’s one. I can say that Athenian democracy was the number one opportunity for a direct democracy in Athens during Ancient Greek. You are right we cannot say discrimination. But, I wonder if we can say that it was patriarchal. Women and slaves were not permitted to vote because they did not have rights to own property. The males were the only one who had rights to vote and joined the political election because they were male and they had power, and also they were hoplite to fight for their polis. Women did not have any control on themselves that their fathers used to control them before they got married. After they got married, their