Cleisthenes was the Athenian leader, who introduced a system he called demokratia, or “rule by the people”. This system was made up of three separate institutions: the Ekklesia, a sovereign governing body that wrote laws and controled foreign policy; the boule, a council of representatives from the ten Athenian tribes; and the dikasteria, the popular courts in which citizens argued cases before a group lotery- selected jurors. Cleisthenes invention was one of ancient Greece’s most everlasting offerings to the modern world. Ostracism, in which a citizen can be banned from the Athenian city or state for 10 years, was between the powers of ekklesia. Decisions were made by a group of individuals by simple majority vote. The boule were chosen by …show more content…
In the U.S., people elected to the U.S. congress vote on issues. In Athens, ballots were decided by a system of lottery, but the U.S. chooses between certain individuals to regulate the country. In the U.S., people have special legal training, where as in the Athens people do not have the guidance to fulfill positions. The connection that the Athenian government and the U.S. government have in common is that it is their plan is to serve the people. In both democracies, not all individuals were given the authority to participate in decisions that were assembled. In our democracy, we have what is called a Democratic Republic. Our leader produces the laws that impacts us. Athenian democracy was a undeviating democracy. If there was an issue, people voted immediately on the issue. The legal system challenged the ancient Athens without lawyers and or other official representatives. Today, we normally vote for representatives who will form laws for the people. What both democracy’s have in common is the amount of patriotism and nationalism seen in the
The democratic ideals in ancient Athens are different from the imperialist actions and building the empire that the government and military did good on. The Athenian political body did not stand entirely unified in its support of imperialist action but most of the citizens supported them. The fact that most of the eligible voting people supported imperialist conquests allowed for limited tension between the democratic and imperialist ideas. Athenian democracy centered around the equality of citizens under the law, and freedom of speech, which meant that imperialist action mostly did contradict the principles of Athenian
In comparing the Ancient Athenian system of government, and the Modern Day American political system, there are many similarities. In Ancient Athens, democracy was developed in response to a long history of oppressive rulers who used their position of power for their own benefit. Ancient Athenians sought a government where all citizens were considered equal under the eyes of the law, and all had a fair say in the running of their country. Following a series
One important contribution of Ancient Greek to the Western Culture is Democracy. The very term itself is of Greek derivation, meaning "People’s Rule". Unlike modern states which call themselves "Democratic". For example, Pericles Funeral Oration gave the greatest contribution to our today’s society. In .(Doc. 2) Pericles stated "Our plan of government favors the many instead of the few". Because of this quote it has contributed the society tremendously due to the fact that the democratic society is a direct democracy. Yet in a way, people have the power to overthrow other powerful representatives; Pericles Funeral Oration, gave us the idea of keeping the civilization as a democracy rather than Oligarchy, Monarchy, and many more. Moreover, Solon an Athenian tyrant discussed his thought about democracy. In .(doc. 4) Solon stated, "I drew up laws for bad and good alike, and set straight justice over each". Solon reveals that he has created laws for the good of others. He wanted every individual having the ...
The Ancient Greeks were the first to put the power of a nation in the hands of the average citizen, they created the idea of the democratic government, practiced as a direct democracy. Voting, political assembly, and official citizenship are all concepts that can be traced back to Classical Grecian ideas .The Romans developed the concept of the representative democracy .This was best exemplified by the Roman Senate. The upper house of the US Congress is the Senate in ode to this ancient ideal. Although American Democracy is defined as a Representative Democracy, that is to say citizens elect those who make decisions, they owe a great deal to Greek ideas and concepts.
This Athenian democracy was the first of its kind, and was certainly not the last. After Cleisthenes returned from exile, he created the first real government of the people – the demos, aroun...
In the fifth-century BC, Athens emerged as one of the most advanced state or polis in all of Greece. This formation of Athenian ‘democracy’ holds the main principle that citizens should enjoy political equality in order to be free to rule and be ruled in turn. The word ‘democracy’ originates from the Greek words demos (meaning people) and kratos (meaning power) therefore demokratia means “the power of the people.” The famous funeral speech of Pericles states that “Our constitution is called democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people.” However, only citizens (free adult men of Athenian descent) could participate in political matters. Women and slaves held no political rights, although they were essential in order to free up time for the citizens to participate in the matters of the state. The development of Athenian democracy has been fundamental for the basis of modern political thinking, although many in modern society UK would be sceptical to call it a democracy. Plato and Aristotle in The Republic and The Politics respectively were critical of the Athenian democracy, by examining the culture and ideology present the limitations and possible downfalls of a democratic way of life. Within this essay I will outline these limitations and evaluate their validity.
During the age of Pericles, the ideal form of government was believed to be a government formed by all of the citizens regardless of wealth or social standing. This was known as democracy, literally meaning “ government of the people” [Document 3.] This government favored the many instead of the few. Athens was a direct democracy, meaning every citizen participated in debates. Western civilization used this philosophy of government by many, and created an indirect democracy where citizens elect officials to make and enforce laws.
Socrates and I grew up alongside the Athenian democracy, and experienced her vicissitudes in the past seventy years. We have both heard and experienced cycle of five types of governments that Socrates had mentioned. (Plato, Republic 8.547e) Our democracy was established hundreds years ago under Cleisthenes and turned to tyranny under Isagoras. In our childhood, Athens was a timarchy, and then Pericles ruled Athens with the
On which they would scratch the name of the person that represented a threat.”(Doc E)This demonstrates why Athens was a democratic society since not only did civilians get to decide on who is in office and who is not. Furthermore, because democracy means rule by the people, and male citizens of ancient Athens voted laws and officials into place.(doc c) This exemplifies how salient the majority's opinion was instead of opinions of just a few rich men .In addition, Athens “....constitution favors many instead of few.”(doc a) Also Athenians had the freedom to do whatever they desire a long as they did not disrupt any other citizen or violate a law. “The freedom which we enjoy in our governments also to our ordinary life…...we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbor for doing what he likes. But all this ease in our private life does not make us lawless as citizens.”(doc A) Therefore, this exhibits that this is a democratic government because this is a characteristic that can be seen in democratic governments today. To summarize why Athens was a democracy.Citizens were free to do what makes them jubilant as long as it did not interfere with the laws or fellow citizens. Male citizens could vote and elect the rulers and vote laws into place. These aspects all demonstrate why Athens
Athens of ancient Greece had perhaps the most advanced system of government of the ancient world. The system of Athens was called a Democracy. That is, every citizen voted on everything. People have claimed that the United States is also a Democracy. This is not true. The government of the United States is a Constitutional Republic (Every). United States citizens vote for representatives, who then vote on the laws. They themselves are limited by a constitution. Democracy is a flawed government system. The Constitutional Republic is also flawed, however, it is better at safeguarding individual rights, when applied correctly. Therefore, a Constitutional Republic is a better system than a Democracy.
In conclusion one could say we may live in a very different and much more complex global world, but the reality is without the ancient Greeks we wouldn’t have the government structure that we currently enjoy today. The truth and reality is that by the time Aristotle even came into play in history there had already been a large amount of Greek democracies already in existence. The foundations that the Ancient Greeks laid and more importantly the political foundation that the Athenians created had an everlasting imprint on how the democratic structure has taken shape in European countries as well as in the United States.
However Athenian democracy formed the basic structure of many western societies today and has influenced them significantly. A continuity when comparing modern society’s and Ancient Greeks form of democracy is that the Ancient Greeks had a judicial system much like today people were chosen to sit on juries (What did democracy really mean?, 2015).However there wasn’t a cross examination and imprisonment was not used as a punishment, instead if someone was found guilty they either had to pay a fine or was put to death (ABC, 2003). A major difference is between Athenian democracy and modern day democracy is eligibility in Ancient Greece as only male adults were allowed to vote and had to adhere to strict birth criteria (Cartledge, 2011) this meant only 10-20% of the overall population were allowed to vote (What did democracy really mean?, 2015). Today the voting age varies however there is no discrimination between sexes in modern democratic governments. Another key difference is that Ancient Greece was a direct democracy whereas modern society is a representative democracy. This means that in Athens the whole citizen body would go to assembly and vote on every decision. Today we vote people to represent everyone and to make decisions on behalf of the whole body of
This essay will describe the different forms of government in the ancient Greek. These government ruled at different times in the ancient Greek and to be specific we will look, compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states. We start the ball rolling with:
The term democracy comes from the Greek language and means "rule by the people."(Democracy Building 2012) The democracy in Athens represents the events leading up to modern day democracies. Like our modern democracy, the Athenian democracy was created as a reaction to a concentration and abuse of power by the rulers. Philosophers defined the essential elements of democracy as a separation of powers, basic civil rights, human rights, religious liberty and separation of church and state. The most current definition of a democracy is defined as 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.”(Dictionary.com). The American democracy was greatly influenced by the Athenian democracy. The Founding Fathers of the American democracy borrowed ideas from the Athenian way of governing. Presently, Americans live in a democracy that is much different than that the Athenian democracy, and what the Founding Fathers of the American Democracy envisioned. Although there are some commonalities between Athens and what our Founding Fathers intended, there are major differences as well. Differences between the modern American democracy the Athenian democracy and what the Founding Fathers envisioned are size of the democracies, the eligibility of a citizen to participate in the democracy and how a citizen participated.
The Greeks system of democracy was an entirely new concept when it was created, and one that has had lasting affects as it continues to influence present day politics around the globe. Modern day democracies may very well not exist if it wasn’t for the success the Athenians had with democracy. Today we look back at these ancient civilizations and we try to better our current society by learning from their mistakes and building on their success.