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Democracy of ancient greece essay
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The Intricacy of Athens Democracy
In the beginning Athens was a very intricate polis. All the Greek city-states shared similar problems, one being overpopulation and wide spread hunger. Sparta tried to solve their problems with conquest, which lead to many years of war, as well as the creation of an oligarchy. The oppression even lead to a revolt. The Athenians however, created a very clever governmental system. Athens created a democracy which allowed all citizens the right and privilege to govern the polis. The Athenians tried to implement laws, but that did not sit well with the peasants. At that time democracy was at its infancy.
Even though Athens created a government for the people, the economic and social climate fluctuated between bad to worse. The rich or aristocrats owned all the best and fertile land, while the common folk were taken advantage of through economic dependence and forcing families to sell members into slavery to pay for debts. All the Greek city-states had similar issues one way or another, but most lead to tyrannical government take overs. Athens avoided that calamity by electing an aristocrat named Solon who called for justice and fairness, the common folk trusted and adored him. His popularity helped him become Archon, which is the chief magistrate of Athens. His position gave him momentous power to reform the young polis.
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He even separated the society into four legal groups on the basis of wealth, much like a caste system, but allowed all citizens from all groups to enjoy and partake in political attributes. The Athenian democracy was flawed however, aristocrats abhorred the blatant attack on themselves and tried to rise up and become tyrants. Many fought each other, more or less an unofficial civil war of the
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
Before Solon was name to reform the laws of the city, Athens was in great chaos. Solon had to tackle issues that were within the city itself. Because of the fact that only aristocrats and nobles were given the power to elect man, many of the “common people” were against that notion; as a result, quarrels between the common people and the aristocrats arose. Furthermore, due the the war that the Athenians just finished, and the accumulation of debts, the poorest of the poor had their lands seized and either sold themselves as slaves or their children and family members.
Four rulers, Draco, Solon, Pisistratus, and Cleithenes, greatly influenced the political development of Athens. However, Athenian democracy cannot really be called a true democracy since there were several flaws in the government and the way in which it functioned. Upper class male citizens over the age of thirty were the only Athenians who held any right to vote. The democracy in Athens consisted of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. Together, nine anchors, a Council of five hundred, an Assembly, and a court chosen by lot governed the city-state with limited power. The Assembly was made up of five hundred men who were chosen from a list of those who were eligible to serve on the council. All branches of the government were capable of vetoing one another. It was also customary to expel from the country any speaker who became too powerful. This rule could easily be abused and often infringed on the freedom of speech that most democracies have. However, as stated in the Athenian Constitution, male citizens were equal and the government’s focu...
Ancient Athens was, at first, rule aristocratically and this benefited a small group of elites. However, there began a major demand for political equality by the wealthy merchants and working class; therefore the aristocrats were forced to compromise or face a major civil war. The aristocrats gave political power to the people of Athens and this restored the power balance within the state. These events lead to the birth of democracy. In Manin’s The Principles of Representative Government, he discusses the creation of the assembly where people would come to vote on local political issues (Manin 11). Along with the assembly, they created mechanisms to avoid demagogues (ostracism and ‘graphe para nomo’) and a lottery system to choose political figures so there is equality among all citizens. Athens functioned and flourished on two core beliefs in the polis: “1. We all have an understanding of what is happening around us and fix it. 2. No one person can take away our right to govern” (Breaugh). Everyone has the ability to rule and must rule, was an essential part of the polis. Additionally, every citizen was equal to one another, within the polis. In the lecture, Breaugh mentioned, “the community would help to define you as a citizen, and the citizen helps define the community” (Breaugh). Political participation was believed to be a vital part of every man’s self-development and, most importantly,
Nobles judged major cases in court and dominated the assembly. Athenian wealth and power grew under the aristocracy. Yet discontent spread over the commoners. Merchants and soldiers resented the power of the nobles and argued that their services to Athens entitled them to more rights. As discontent spread the government slowly moved towards a democracy.
Athens was one of the first places to develop the idea of a democracy. They experimented with the idea of a direct democracy where instead of electing a representative who voted on the citizen’s behalf, all citizens were able to vote for themselves. However, not everyone was a citizen. To be a citizen one must be born in Athens, male, landowning, and free-born. After meeting all the requirements they were able to vote on all bills and legislation. The assembly was a main aspect of Athenian Democracy, they had many jobs such as making public announcements, and voting on the primary issues of Athens. Another important part of the democracy was the council of 500, who were drawn randomly and could only serve once. They knew that all citizens couldn’t meet everyday at the assembly, so they created the Council of 500 to direct the daily business of Athens. Another group controlling the democracy was the court, they were the ones supervising all
The Athenian government was a democratic government, which means it was ruled by the people to vote and have a voice in society. The democracy was slowly formed by leaders Solon and Cleisthenes. Solon took over when Athens was in political turmoil. He introduced new reforms to forgive debts, outlaw new loans, free people that
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
The people of Athens saw their country as the best of the best and there was no other country that could be like them. Pericles founded Athens colonies and helped to create a coalition into an Athens empire. Also, Athens developed a direct democracy which allowed the people to take part in the day-to-day government ruling. He was the head official in the Athens democracy during the years 446-429 B.C., which is now called the Periclean Age. In the 450s, under his guidance, the Athens assembly passed a series of laws that went far toward establishing a democratic constitution. Pericles believed honor and immortality could be achieved by the people of Athens based on legal and political equally.
Greece’s Golden Age can be defined as a time of flourishing. Athens made the important decision of splitting itself from Sparta, who they constantly differed with. “It is from this split that the Athenian Empire was created” (Hunt 80). This split illustrates the certainty that the Athenians possessed in terms of creating a better nation. Athens developed an empire because democracy was expensive. In order for democracy to be created, you need an empire to raise money. Both Sparta and Athens created different leagues in an effort to intensify their dominance. The Delian League, which was the league Athens was associated with, continued to thrive. This allowed them the opportunity to create a democratic nation in which the people were provided with the freedom they continuously strived for. The individual that was determined to create a democratic nation was Pericles. He revised and renovated Athenian democracy. It was during his time that the U.S. constitution arises. Pericles lowered the standard of citizenship which meant that more money needs to be made to pay the people. The poor were even capable of being Athenian citizens. In doing so, he also limited citizenship to those who were purely Athenians. He stated that “if an Athenian man married a non-Athenian woman, then his children will not be considered Athenian citizens” (Hunt 83). Pericles did this to secure high value of Athenian citizenship. However, the Athenians understood that citizenship in Athens is a privilege. It is something that should be cherished and not taken advantage of.
Athens was one of the largest Greek city states. (Stockton, 4). It was about one thousand square miles (Stockton, 4). Athens was founded in the 8th century BC (Muller). It was at first ruled by the college of archons. (Muller). After a term of one year, the archons became members of the Council of Elders (Muller). The people had a voice in the popular assembly, the Ekklesia (Muller). However, it did not have real power until 600 BC. By then, it was an established institution of Athens (Muller). It became the central policy making body in the 5th century. There were two main governmental bodies, the Assembly and the Council. (Acropolis). The Assembly was responsible for policy making. (Acropolis) The Council was responsible for administration and implementing the Assembly’s policies. Not everyone could participate in Athenian politics. Slaves, resident aliens, and women were excluded.
The population size of the polis were small, and each male citizen was cognizant of their role and value within the community, and developed a strong spirit of independence. This sense of independence is what led the citizens within the polis to choose their own leaders, and overthrowing leaders that had done wrong by the greater populist or that the populist felt had abused their power. Athens, furthered this sense of independence by creating a democratic Athens, where full citizens were expected to run the governme...
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
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.