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Ancient Athenian Democracy Is Not A Democracy

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Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. These members have the rights to vote, have well-paying jobs, and be able to serve their country during a war. However, in ancient Athens only a very small population of citizens had the rights to do these things. In ancient Athens, the Athenian government was not truly Democratic because only a little population of citizens could vote, the city can decide whether or not you have the right to be a citizen, and only a few citizens had the full amount of rights. In ancient Athen their total population was 240,775, also in ancient Athens, the total number people allowed to vote is only 29,900. That is only 12% of the total population, this means that 88% of the total population does not have the right to vote. In Athens according to Professor Josiah Ober, “the only people allowed to vote are citizen men, everyone else including citizen women, children of citizens, metics, and slaves did not have to right to vote,” (Ober 5). This means the government in ancient Athens is not a Democracy because in a Democracy it states that either the whole population or all eligible members, meaning citizens, of the state can vote or they can elect representatives to vote. However, in ancient Athens the citizen men were not elected to vote, they just have the right to vote. This means the government isn’t a true Democracy because they didn’t elect

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