Athenian Demokratia

1681 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The features and the limitations of the Athenian democracy

In 508 B.C, a civil war in Athens ceased; giving rise to a new democratic constitution under the leadership of Cleisthenes. The changes made under his leadership and other subsequent reforms resulted in a relatively radical form of government for the time known as democracy (Hyland Lecture, 26/09/2013). Democracy is a system of collective decision-making in which the participants have equality at least at one essential point of the decision making process (Christiano, “Democracy”). Furthermore, the term ‘democracy’, which comes from the Greeks, literally means rule by the people. The system of government, created by the Greeks, known as Democracy possessed many unique characteristics such as judicial review that have come to influence modern governments. The principle of equality allowed all Athenian citizens to participate in government on an equal level, a practice that as Plato pointed out is no longer feasible. Ancient Athenian democracy also utilized direct representation and did not distinguish political rights from individual rights. In this way, while Athenian democracy has influenced modern democracies through ideas such as equality and checks and balances, it cannot be said to be democratic in the modern sense of the term due to its utilization of institutions and promotion of values that no longer are applicable or desired in the modern realm of politics. Since the time of Athenian democracy, the world has experienced many intellectual movements including the enlightenment, Protestant Reformation, and the industrial revolution to name a few that have forced governments to change in response to new popular opinion and technology.
The Athenian government structure consisted of an Assembly, the Council of 500, a system of...

... middle of paper ...

...stems to create new structures to serve the interests of society.

Works Cited

Birch, Anthony Harold. The Concepts and Theories of Modern Democracy. London: Routledge, 1993. Print.
Christiano, Tom. "Democracy." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 27 July 2006. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.
Held, David. Models of Democracy. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1987. Print.
Hyland, Eddie. “Class Notes.” History of Political Thought Lecture. 26 Sept. 2013.
Jones, A. H. M. "The Economic Basis of the Athenian Democracy." Past and Present 1.1 (1952): 13-31. JSTOR. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.
Jones, A.H M. "The Athenian Democracy and Its Critics." Cambridge Historical Journal 11.1 (1953): 1-26. JSTOR. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.
Pickles, Dorothy Maud. Democracy. New York: Basic, 1971. Print.
Sartori, Giovanni. The Theory of Democracy Revisited. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1987. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Evolution of Democracy and the Athenian Constitution

    4275 Words  | 9 Pages

    It is surprising indeed that Even today, tyrannies and dictatorships exist in the world when more than two and a half thousand years ago the ancient Athenians had developed a functional and direct form of democracy. What contributed to this remarkable achievement and how it changed the socio-political. scene in Athens is what will be considered in this paper. The paper will have three sections, each detailing the various stages. of political development from the kings of Attica to the time of Pericles when, in its golden age, Athens was at the height of its. imperial power.

    Read More

  • The Suppliants By Euripides

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    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,

    Read More

  • Classical Athens: Political Success In Democratic Athenian Democracy

    1399 Words  | 3 Pages

    The political atmosphere of Classical Athens was one to behold on a global scale. A style government that had not been so much as thought of anywhere else in the world was flourishing in the powerful polis, and proved to be the backbone of its success in the ancient world. Democracy did away with the tyrants, monarchs, and oligarchs of the past and instead offered a voice to every man in the state who so chose to participate. Many cities of the ancient world would shudder at the thought of offering a voice to commoners, and even the poverty stricken; but the Athenian mindset was prideful in the notion that any citizen of the great city was competent enough to take part in civil discourse and furthermore

    Read More

  • Is the EU Democratic?

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    In making this argument this essay seeks to five things. Firstly, to define democracy within the contemporary context offering the key characteristics of a modern re...

    Read More

  • Direct Democracy In Ancient Athens Essay

    354 Words  | 1 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Spartan Monarchy

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    With an understanding of the structure of both aristocratic parties and the monarchy for which holds each altogether, we can evaluate democracy. For Spartan society, to an extent, individuals were still elected for Ephors and Gerousia positions, this means that there was a represented democracy but due to limited community involvement, only 35 aristocrats in the main political posts, it can hardly be coined as a democratic society. Whereas, in comparison, Athenian society had the people's assembly consisting of 500 male-citizens, directly involved with council and magistrate decisions allowing an everyday communal input on political and war-time decision. Due to exclusion of women politically speaking and slave ownership, in both cultures, Athenians still had some of their own flaws, but more closely represented what we see today from modern democracy.

    Read More

  • Ancient Greek Philosophical Views are Still Relevant Today

    1585 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mckeon, Richard. "The Interpretation of Political Theory and Practice in Ancient Athens." Journal of the History of Ideas, 42.1 (1981): 3-12.

    Read More

  • What Is Ancient Athens Truly A Democracy

    138 Words  | 1 Pages

    So, was ancient Athens a democracy? Some would argue that it isn’t, but I believe that it in fact is. It has many parts of it that makes it not one, but the proof that

    Read More

  • Slavery in Sparta vs. Slavery in Athens

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    Athenian government is democratic, and its citizens play a major role in shaping the government. Athenian ‘citizens’ are comprised only of adult males; women, children, metics, and slave...

    Read More

  • Athenian Democracy and Pericles

    3286 Words  | 7 Pages

    Raaflaub, Kurt A., and Josiah Ober. Origins of democracy in ancient Greece. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.

    Read More

  • The Art of Democracy

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before creating the democratic form of government that the Athenians first used, Athens practiced the oligarchy. Athens had a center of government in their city state known as the polis. The polis was the city-state’s center for government. All around Greece, people were using a polis as their center of government. But rather than having democracy as their forms, they ranged from oligarchy (“rule by the few”) to tyranny (“rule by the tyrant”) and the in betweens of timocracy (“rule by the wealthy”) and aristocracy (“rule by the best”). It was only in response to the crisis of corruption within their oligarch that Athens decided to start the Council of 500, and create the rule by the people (C).

    Read More

  • Hown Does Democracy Happen?

    1241 Words  | 3 Pages

    Schmitter, Philippe C., and Terry Lynn Karl. "What Democracy Is ... and Is Not." Journal of Democracy 2.3 (1991): 75-88. Project MUSE. Web. 10 Sept. 2013.

    Read More

  • Democracy And Athenian Democracy

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    The word democracy derives from two Greek words; ‘demos’ which means ‘the people’ and ‘kratein’ which means to rule. Democracy is defined as a government, by and for the people because ‘power is not of a minority but of the whole people’ (Thucydides). Originally democracy meant rule by the common people. In the sense, and even before the beginning of modern class society, it was very much a social class affair. This meant that power should be in the hands of the largest class: the poorest, least educated and those without land or property. As a result, democracy was feared and rejected by the educated, cultured and wealthy. In classical Greece, democracy was seen by the liberal and the educated as one of the worst types of government and society imaginable and often thought of as a ‘bad word’. The rule of the people was regarded as a threat to all the cherished values of a civilized orderly society.

    Read More

  • Development of Democracy in Athens

    1776 Words  | 4 Pages

    The biggest difference between Athenian democracy and all other democracies is that the Athenian version was a direct democracy rather than representative. It would seem the kind of direct democracy that Athens had might lead to anarchy at the worst and arbitrary decisions or unstable policies at the least. Both ancient and modern democratic experiments have shown that the will of the people sometimes is undeceive, changing to and fro with every rhetorical wind that blows. Yet, as surprising as it may seem, Athenian d...

    Read More

  • Greek Politics

    5533 Words  | 12 Pages

    one essential conviction, expressed in the word democracy itself: that power should be in the hands of the people. Although democracy today has been slightly inefficient in this idea, with the wealthy, elite class challenging this right, “it nevertheless claims for itself a fundamental validity that no other kind of society shares….” To completely understand the structure of democracy, one must return to the roots of the practice itself, and examine the origins in ancient Greece, the expansion in the Roman Empire, and how these practices combined make what we recognize as today’s democratic government.

    Read More

More about Athenian Demokratia

Open Document