The Athenian Democracy: The Origins Of Greek Democracy

Have the origins of Greek Democracy, influenced what we call democracy today, and are these two systems still intertwined? The Athenian leader Cleisthenes created demokratia or democracy, meaning the rule of the people. This system worked in a way, so that everyone could equally contribute to what happened in their city-state. No one person could rule over the rest, there was no king or tyrant. Even though democracy had some complications at first, it became really well liked and well known throughout other city-states. The course of action that helped to escalate democracy throughout the world, was other people and or places wanted change.

Greek democracy was established in Athens around 510 B.C. All free men, wealthy or poor, that were citizens got the right to vote. There were three branches of democracy, the ekklesia, the boule, and the dikasteria; the use of these branches helped make democracy what it is. The ekklesia was the first branch, it made decisions about war and foreign policy, wrote and revised laws and

Only free men older than eighteen, in Athens could vote and take part in governmental activities; other city-states would have even less participation, only men that owned land and were sort of wealthy could decide government affairs. Now a days, using a democratic government means that everyone can vote as long as they are over eighteen years of age. The Athenian government had a three parts or branches just like how we have three different parts or branches to our democratic system. The ekklesia, boule, and dikasteria; these were the three systems of the greek democratic government. The Executive, Legislative, and Judicial; are the three branches of today´s democratic government. We kept the other all system of democracy the same, but we modified it to fit our time period or place, just like other city-states who got the idea of democracy from the Athenians