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Athenian Democracy

Decent Essays

The Athenian democracy of Greece was the first established democracy that lasted for around 186 years. It was a strong system of government up until its fall. Being in the largest city of Athens where there was a large amount of diversity many types of people were able to serve as council men or judges. Though there was a large amount of diversity women were still not able to serve or have a say in what was done during council meetings. Because of the large amount of diversity in the council the wealthy and upper-class people became jealous of the lower classes and did not want them to dictate what happened in their own houses. So, their want for power and wealth came to be the reason that the Athenian democracy fell. With this striving for power came a larger distinction of division between all of the classes. Democracy in modern terms is “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.” This common definition differs in a few ways to that of Athenian democracy. For example, today the law comes before the person. Meaning that the law is upheld no matter who it is or the circumstances under which a person committed an offense. In Athens the people came before the law. Who the person was and why they did what they did was though of before a decision on their guilt and punishment was conceived. Another example is the focus on one ruler versus many. In today’s democracy people are under the

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