What Is The Greek Ideal Of Democracy

In this paper, I intend to show that ancient Athenian democracy influenced western political thought, specifically, western democracies. By influencing such modern day democracies, ancient Greek culture remains a presence in contemporary life.

Plato’s impression of democracy which was intellectualized around 384 B.C.E is rather different from the present day understanding of democracy and the power of wealth. As an aristocrat himself, according to Plato “When the poor win, the result is a democracy.” (Plato, p.58). In other words, Plato believed that only kings were authorized to rule its society, whereas regular everyday people were perceived as ferocious and unable to govern. Plato’s awareness of democracy was established when he realized ordinary people were not born to lead, that only the elite people had the utmost respect, and right to rule over the lower class. Furthermore, the concept of power and wealth continues to be a crucial stand point in society’s then, and now since the exercise of democracy is known to be a political affair.

and tyranny, democracy gave some power to everyone (well, to free male citizens). Chois and Thebes,

When describing democracy, it can be related to ideals that empower the people, such as: fairness, representation, equality, opportunity, and freedom. In the early 1800’s, these democratic ideals began to transform American culture and politics as they seemed to suffuse every aspect of society. By the 1820’s and 1830’s, America even attracted the interest of many foreigners who were impressed by the democratic character of life. They were surprised by the equality of conditions and saw American society as far more egalitarian than any society in Europe (Keene, 228). This new wave of democracy also thrived through politics and by 1828, almost every single state chose their presidential elector by letting

Swiss-French writer Benjamin Constant and ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle offer conflicting viewpoints concerning the merits and possibilities of ancient Greek democracy. Aristotle’s political theory attempts to justify his city-state’s political structure by providing a model of the common good, or Chief Aim, his end goal for Athenian democracy. He believed Athenians could reach the Chief Aim as a society by individually learning to be virtuous and then instilling laws and morals based on these ideals. In his lecture, The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns, Constant highlights that the individual liberties protected in a modern representative democracy are much more important than the political liberties that one was given in antiquity. Constant illustrates that while some ideas of ancient Greek democracy are precious, Aristotle’s political theory is not an obtainable reality and it was beneficial that modern democracies transitioned to a system that protects individual liberty.

Even though the Third Estate made up the majority of the population, they only got one vote. As seen in the chart based off of the three estates in France during 1789, 97%of the citizens created the Third Estate (Doc 2). One vote for 97% of the population was unequal, and no one’s voice was heard separately. The Third Estate had only one vote, the First and Second Estate were able to pass anything that pleased them. According to the English Bill of Rights written by the English Parliament, “That the pretended power of suspending of the laws or the execution of law is regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal…” (Doc 8) The English had the same issue and solved it earlier. France should have inferred that the issues would appear and used the English’s struggles and solutions for their own good. The First and Second Estates did everything in their power for the Third Estate to have very minimal

This statement shows how poorly people of the lower class were treated, and how corrupt this system of government is on the people of France. Once the French monarchy faced bankruptcy in 1787, the Estates General was called, and a new form of government was formed called the National Assembly. This government was composed of members of the third estate, because they were the only estate that had to pay taxes when they were already poor. The National Assembly was the rightful representatives of the French people, who demanded tax reform and greater political equality. In a report of the British Ambassador, the Duke

The establishment of the National Assembly that integrated different classes of people into one government signifies the growing public voice in political arena as citizens urged an end to hunger and unfair taxation system. Ever since King XVI summoned the Estates General to tackle the problems of food shortage and economic crisis, the Third Estate, who represented every French except the clergies and the nobles, has been constantly demanding for more voting rights to make people’s hardship known to the king and the other two estates. They thus assembled lists of grievances from citizens throughout France which called for a limit to

Many believed that giving the vote to all would lead to misguided legislation. For the same reason they feared the control of political "parties" by corrupt people. The nation’s founders believed that “democracy” could contain harmful effects, but eventually the term had become acceptable and could be functional in American institutions. Citizens in the 1820s and 1830s slowly lost their fear that democracy would lead to anarchy. Though each individual was to be given an equal start in life, equality of opportunity did not mean equality of results.

By far, one of the greatest achievements of humanity as a whole has been the development of democracy. This idea sprouted with the growth of history’s most successful and innovative civilizations; the Greeks and the Romans. Their enormous populations called for a fair and just way of governing. Why not allow control to stem from the populations own members? This logical way of thought is still evident in the world today, especially in the democracy of the United States of America. Upon examination of America’s most valuable texts, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, it becomes very evident that many of these modern ideas can be traced back in time to the beliefs of the Greeks and Romans. The principles of democracy were very successful within these ancient societies, as they are successful within America today.

In the era of the contemporary United States, a country that has had the longest standing democracy, we are used to thinking very highly of its system. However, throughout our history, there have been a couple of critics to the system of democracy. It comes as no surprise that democracy does have its issues. One of the first pieces of literature where democracy was mentioned and analyzed at a deeper level was The Republic by Plato. This ancient Greek philosopher did not completely agree with democracy, regardless of the fact that ancient Athens was the first civilization that gave rise to it. In fact, in a numerical list that he composes on which are the best ways of ruling, Plato puts democracy at one of the lowest levels. In order, Plato’s list of types of government from most desirable to least desirable looks like this: 1.) Republic (The ideal city) 2.) Timocracy 3.) Oligarchy 4.) Democracy 5.) Tyranny. Additionally, In The Republic, Plato tells us his beliefs and values on certain aspects of life through the eyes of Socrates. So, even though Plato himself does not appear in The Republic and instead Socrates does, nonetheless, Plato and Socrates shared the same ideology when it came to democracy. As we know, Plato did not agree with democracy. As a result, in this paper, I will explore the greatest intellectual strengths and weaknesses of Plato’s view on democracy.

Both Greek Democracy and the Roman Republic contributed greatly to the development of the modern world, bringing into it the notions of democracy and republic. The evolution of these concepts took them to a level much higher than one present in Ancient Greece and Rome respectively. However, modern society continues to draw on somewhat idealized accounts of the ancient world for inspiration in improving today’s governing procedures.

‘The Republic’ is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato around 380 BC, concerning about the order of justice, the order and character of just men and just city/states. The Republic is considered as the best known work of Plato and is considered one of the world’s most influential works of politics, history and philosophy. In this Socratic dialogue, Socrates discusses about the notions of justice and whether the just man is very happy when compared with his unjust, Athenian and foreign counterparts. Socrates considers the various facets of the existing regimes and proposes a series of hypothetical cities that are entirely different from his considerations. Such heated discussions result in the culmination of discussing kallipolis, a hypothetical city-state that was ruled by a philosopher king. In this paper, we are going to consider Socrates arguments about democracy by examining whether the concept of democracy always remains inconsistent with philosophical goals.

Democracy is often referred to as the rule of the many, but Aristotle called this definition incomplete. In his book “Politics”, he explained that in a city if the majorities are aristocrats and if they have political authority, then it is an aristocracy not a democracy. He therefore defined democracy as when “free people have authority and Oligarchy as when the wealthy have it” (1290b). Plato viewed Democracy as a flawed system with too much inefficiency that would make any implementation of a true democracy not worth it. While Aristotle viewed democracy as a system that could work if it is limited to certain restrictions and if it is the regime that best fits the culture of the people to be governed. In this essay it will be argued that Plato’s view on democracy as a flawed system is more prevalent or more compelling if the current political arena around the world is observed.

one essential conviction, expressed in the word democracy itself: that power should be in the hands of the people. Although democracy today has been slightly inefficient in this idea, with the wealthy, elite class challenging this right, “it nevertheless claims for itself a fundamental validity that no other kind of society shares….” To completely understand the structure of democracy, one must return to the roots of the practice itself, and examine the origins in ancient Greece, the expansion in the Roman Empire, and how these practices combined make what we recognize as today’s democratic government.