The Pros And Cons Of Athenian Democracy

The word “democracy” or “demoskratos” in Greek, is a form of government where the (ruling) power is in the hands of the people. The democracy of Athens developed around 500 B.C.E because of the current uproar of oligarchies and dictatorship. The main body of governance in the democracy was the Citizens Assembly, which was a meeting where any man regardless of class was able to direct foreign policies, balance the power of leaders, and was able to oversee laws. Athens had both anti-democratic and democratic qualities to its government because they only represented certain individuals out of a whole population, however this was the first time in history where citizens of any class could vote on governmental affairs and average citizens were able to have the power to check and balance their leaders power.

Once broken down, the word “demoskratos” simply means the power is in the hands of all people. This definition, however, did not hold true in Athens. The Athenians narrowed down the meaning of “demos” to only adult male (citizens) whom which were part of the Assembly. The whole population was comprised of a diverse group of people, but only “12 percent of the population was able to vote” (Ober). Additionally, slaves, metics, children of citizens, and citizen women made up 88% of the

population, yet they had no say in affairs. This illustrates how exclusive the Athenians were and then eventually how biases their system was due to only one type of person’s opinion.
Although there were definite flaws to this system, the Athenian democracy was the first chance for any man regardless of class to vote on otherwise higher up governmental affairs.

According to Pericles’ Funeral Oration, “If a man is able to serve the state, he is not stopped by the obscurity of his condition” (Pericles). This highlights how people regardless of their class could now be represented by this new system of governance. This is a real turning point in history because now people begin to see how others are able to vote on what they believe in, no matter their condition. This idea would later become woven into the United States democracy, which is why it is so

important.
This was also the first time in history where regular people could check their leaders power. According to Professor John Camp, “Once a year the Athenians would meet and vote on whether or not higher politicians and famous people were a threat to democracy” (Camp). People begin to see how regular citizens had the right to control how much power officials have in what they are doing. Athenians would be very thorough and check “every 36 days” to make sure the leader was financially supported enough (to make sure they were not skipping paying their taxes and/or taking money from the government.) If citizens did not like what they were seeing as a whole, they had the ability to check and balance the power between them (the citizens) and the higher politicians.
To reiterate, Ancient Athens definitely had particular characteristics that made them a democracy, but they also had features that made it anti-democratic. This was the first democracy ever established where regular citizens could vote, plus Athens gave the right to Athenian citizens to check and balance their leaders actions/decisions. However, only certain citizens were represented in this form of government. To this day, the U.S is still a democracy thanks to the contributions of Athenian democracy. Certain things definitely evolved over the years, but the base idea is still the same, the power is in the hands of the people. A democracy is when not the men of property are in power, but simply the people are in power. This definition was both achieved by the U.S and Ancient Athens so it is safe to say a democracy was born from past history, and edited throughout the years.