Greek Government Dbq Essay

The word democracy comes from two Greek words: demos, meaning "the people," and kratein, meaning "to rule." These two words are joined together to form a democracy, literally meaning "rule by the people". Nowadays democracy could be referred as a rule of the majority. It is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or choose delegates from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. The Greek system of government was maybe more like a true democracy or administered by the general population than any other ever. On the other hand, most American politicians with mindfulness and knowledge have realized that the U.S. is not a Democracy as a country, regardless of the way that most people declare it to be a Democracy. Greek and American democracy have some similarities such as the amount of nationalism and patriotism saw in the people when a lack of representation for a city-state or nation as a whole is seen, and they both vote for their political leaders.

The motive for creating a bicameral legislature in the US Constitution was to ensure that there is fair representation for both large and small states. The Senate is based on equal representation while the House of Representatives is based on the population of each state. Furthermore, Ancient Rome influenced the US Constitution because it used a system known as checks and balances. Checks and balances is a system where each branch had the power to work against another branch if that branch were to abuse its power or become too powerful. Ancient Rome used this system in order to prevent government corruption and to have a balance of power throughout the government. Polybius, who was a Roman politician, wrote 40 volumes of work that make up The Histories. “For when one [branch] having grown out of proportion to the others aims at supremacy and tends to become too predominant, …[that branch] ...can be counter worked and thwarted by the others” (Document C). The US Constitution also includes checks and balances where the executive, judicial, and legislative branches can check the power of each

he principle of checks and balances creates a limited form of government because the constitution sets up the branches of the government and how they can only do certain things and can watch over the other branches. Also being a democracy the government cannot have all the power. Some of these checks and balances are the President appointing an official and the Congress rejected/ confirmed the official; the President vetoes a bill and the Congress overrides the veto with a vote: and lastly the judicial branch can review and say an act or order that Congress or President have put in order.

Throughout the eighteenth to early nineteenth century, Greece was fighting for its independence from the Ottoman Turks, who had ruled the Balkan Peninsula since the fifteenth century. The Greek’s rebellion against the Ottomans attracted Western Europe who sympathized with their cause, and only with the help of British, French, and Russian forces was Greece able to reclaim their formal independence in 1830. Through writers, government figures, and other individual positions where the points of views comparable over the views of independence, for instance most of the writers wrote poems and letters in favor of Greek independence, government figures included insights from both the Turk side and Greek side, and finally a compilation of different

To prevent from one branch of government having all power, and therefore having tyranny, (Madison FP # 47) Checks and Balances was added to the defenses of the constitution. There are three branches of government: Legislative Branch (Congress), Executive Branch (President), and Judicial Branch (The Courts). These three branches work together to check one another to make sure the power is evenly distributed and balanced, hence the name Checks and Balances. The way it works is that the Legislative Branch (Congress) can check the Executive Branch (President) by approving Presidential nominations, being able to override a President’s veto, and can impeach the President, him or her, from office. The Legislative Branch can check the Judicial Branch by having Senate confirm Presidential nominations and by being able to impeach judges and remove them from office. The President can check the Legislative Branch by vetoing Congressional legislation, and can check the Judicial Branch by nominating judges. The Judicial Branch can check the Legislative Branch by declaring laws unconstitutional, and can check the Executive Branch by declaring presidential acts unconstitutional. (Madison FP # 51) All three branches of government work together to make sure no branch is abusing their limited power, by using the system Checks and

The great debate in the 18th century over the independence of Greece caused a boisterous debate among differing nations. At the time, the Greeks were trying to free themselves from their Ottoman rule. After the uprising in 1821, thousands of Europeans joined on the side of the Greeks announcing their approval of their independence. Many posed their opinions. The views towards the conditions of Greeks in the Ottoman Empire differed between the Greek themselves, England, and the Turks.

The concept of Democracy dates back to the Classic Period, otherwise known as the Golden Age of Greece. Prior to becoming a unified nation, Greece was made up of city-states that were constantly warring with one another. None of these city-states possessed full control over its neighbors. It was during this time and because of these circumstances that there was great advancement in Greek thought encompassing philosophy and politics. These advancements are responsible for the strong Greek

When the framers of our revered Constitution came together to produce our governing system, they wanted to avoid the precedent of an all powerful entity that could control its citizens. They broke governments role into three important phases, which were the power to make laws, the power to interpret laws, and the ability to enforce them. To further decentralize these authority holding organizations, they created a system that allowed each of the three sections to have a say in each of the others ability to exercise said authority. This organization of overlapping power is referred to as a checks and balances system and was intended to create three equal powers to govern the United States. Over the years since its

Checks and balances is a method used to balance government power and individual rights .This way leaders do not gain too much power,which could take societies liberties .This was very important to the founding fathers,so they then seperated government into three branches,which are the Legislative,executive and Judical .This way they all check each other , to have independent powers and areas of responsibility. .The system of checks and balance does work because each branch can prevent another branch from overstepping its bounds and abusing its power.

Greece was one of the first people to have recorded the events of their democratic system. Democracy is a Greek word literally meaning the power of the people to rule. Early democracy was established in ancient Athens, a Greek city-state, and was probably the single most powerful and stable democratic government in Greece.

As we have learned that Democracy came from the word ‘demos’ which means people, that makes people the ruling party or majority rule. Ancient Greeks who were experimenting with different kinds of political system and were much interested in which system works best. By far the most radical kind of democracy is a direct democracy which lasted less than two centuries in a Greek city-state of Athens. Citizens of Athens were directly involved in the process and participated in decision making and they were proud of it, they deemed their system to be the best and superior to other systems in other Greek city-states. As Cartwright stated an excerpt from Pericles himself who was one of the greatest supporters of democracy in classic

Have you ever thought that the U.S. government is easily comparable to the Roman's version of government? Maybe that's because the U.S. government is roughly parallel with the Ancient Roman Government. The Romans did not have a constitution, like us Americans, but their division of executive, legislative, and judicial branches is similar. The Roman government served as a template for the American government. As you read further, you will see how the governmental structures, with detail, are similar by first making points on the American style contrasted with the Roman style of government.

Democracy, a government ruled by the voice of the people, was formed in the greek society

(Thomas Jefferson 59) He means by this that if too much power is given to one branch of government that they will abuse the power and they will be corrupt with the power if given too much. The checks and balances are set in place to prevent this from happening and keep the people safe from a dictatorship being formed by the

Athens was a model of democratic government because for every little decision to big decision, the majority of people would decide, because it was relatively small.