The Pros And Cons Of An Athenian Democracy

Athens was one of the key cities at the time of Ancient Greece. Some might argue that Athens was a great democracy but I respectfully disagree. I believe that Athens was not truly a democracy because of the citizen obligations, voting rights, the standards that it was an oligarchy, and the system to vote people out of the assembly. According to the Athenian Constitution written by a Greek philosopher named Aristotle it states, “ If the courts decides that he has no right to be enrolled as a citizen, he is sold by Athens as a slave.” This process is not very fair because if the person applying to be a citizen does not follow a few guidelines he will not be chosen as a citizen. Some might argue that this process was just but there are many more downfalls to this than one might

think. Individuals might say that the voting system was correct, but a true democracy would never let only less than 15% of their country vote for matters that to be changed. The chart entitled The Athenian Population states that only 12% of the total population was able to vote. The 12% of people also only included men who citizens of Athens. 88% of population were not allowed to vote.

These people included citizen women, children of citizens, metics, and slaves. Matters that concerned other groups besides men would not have been taken care of efficiently.To continue, an oligarchy is a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution. In ancient greece the people were ruled by a group of men. They believed that was democratic as the word for that was demortika. In the United States being ruled by a few people was not a democracy, it is an oligarchy. According to Professor Hansen, a leading expert in the world on the subject of Athenian democracy he states that “... democracy is the rule of the whole of the people, excluding minors and maniacs only. Demokratia was rule by male citizens only excluding women, free foreigners( metics) and slaves.” Although some might argue that Athens did follow the meaning of democracy, when an individual breaks down the meaning of democracy, Athens did not. The last reason why Athens was not a democracy was because of the things that could go wrong during the time of ostracism. Every year the assembly would come together and vote if anyone was a threat to their

country. If yes, two months later people would come together with a name and the most common name would be sent to exile for ten years. This process got unfair when people started putting down rivals names. The matter got even worse after, “ One batch of ostraca found in Athens all with the name of Themistocles turned out to be written by only 13 individuals.” states Professor Camp of Randolph- Macon College. Another incident occurred when two of the top people that were going to be sent to exile ganged up on three unlucky people. After that time, the process was banned. Some might say this process allowed this city to be protected from future enemies but most of the time people from the assembly cornered the weak. In conclusion, even though Athens was a wonderful part of Greece’s history due to citizen obligations, voting rights, the standards that it was an oligarchy, and the system to vote people out of the assembly there are more downfalls to Athens.