Direct Democracy In Ancient Athens Essay

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Democracy in Ancient Athens started out as a monarchy and evolved into an aristocracy or oligarchy, which led to a tyrant ruler followed by a democracy. Ancient Athens implemented a democracy, which was know as a direct democracy. The direct democracy allowed free male citizens to attend the ecclesia. An ecclesia was the general assembly, were the Athenian people met to propose laws, bring a lawsuit, and to address the council and public. Democracy in Ancient Athens relied on a boule, which was a 500 member governing council, whose job it was to set the tone of the meetings as well as to evaluate proposals. The boule was chosen by sortitions. And the only positions that were filled by elections were generals, who were considered aristocratic. The court trials in Ancient Athens involved no lawyer, the person bringing these charges had to present their own case against the defense. There were no judges to rule against the case, just jurors who either said yes or no, or wrote their vote on clay shards. The person with the most votes won and punishment was suggested by both the …show more content…

In the United States, we have a system of checks and balances which organizes and regulates the power each branch of government holds. Whereas in Ancient Athens the majority ruled and the citizens would make and rule on the laws. Another difference between the democracy in Ancient Athens and that of the United States, is that in the United States people in the vote on their congressmen, who in return vote to make the laws. While in Ancient Athens the citizens proposed the laws and voted on them. The democracy differences between Ancient Athens and the United States is evident, while our democracy is more progressive, it was Ancient Athens first steps in democracy that paved the way for the government which our society holds

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