How significant was Greek Democracy in its development during the Classical Greek Era?
Classical Greek Era, one of the most advanced eras ahead of its time. However, what made the democracy that the Greeks established so significant to the Greece’s overall development? How did they do it? How did the Greek democracy last for long as it did? What factors caused the downfall of the infamous Greek democracy?
Development of Athenian (Greek) Society
Ancient Greece was the first to establish a democracy. In Greek democracy, every citizen was expected to participate or receive a punishment, but they had to be citizens, only twenty percent of Athenians were considered citizens, so only the free men could enjoy the rights and responsibilities that
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In ancient Greece, only citizens could vote, therefore only men could vote for officials in their democracy. The citizens of Athens on assembly day, or the day of governmental voting, would gather in the agora, a fixture of every major Greek city-state was a large open space in the middle of the city-state that contained both a marketplace and government buildings. Citizens would speak about various topics based or pertaining to the issues of the day before the gathering for the assembly meeting. It was there where the citizens cast their votes and others would be marked with red paint if they fail to fulfill their political duties. How they would cast their vote was by marking their official choice with pieces of ostracon . This was done once annually, the purpose of voting was to randomly select citizens, rich poor and anything in between a slot in office but, soon citizens noticed that slots such as military slots need a set of special skills and attributes to get the job done effectively. The process of ejecting a person from office was called ostracism , it was the act of de-selecting a person from office and exiling them from the land for ten years. In theory, it is a deselection which means that they were disfavored by the citizens and were cast out of the favored social circle but worse. The citizens were the ones to decide if they should have it that specific year. If a candidate was selected, they would be forced to resign and
The Ancient Greeks were the first to put the power of a nation in the hands of the average citizen, they created the idea of the democratic government, practiced as a direct democracy. Voting, political assembly, and official citizenship are all concepts that can be traced back to Classical Grecian ideas .The Romans developed the concept of the representative democracy .This was best
The following documents will argue why Athens was a democracy, and why the Greek city truly gave all the power it had to it’s citizens. All the following documents come from reputable sources and documents based from Ancient Athens and Greece itself..
This shows that ancient Athens was truly democratic because the government at least let some of the people of ancient Athens start to participate in voting. At the same time, in other city-states like Sparta, no one was allowed to vote so the government was in control of themselves only. This type of democracy influenced society because the Athenians were proud
democracy is a form of government in which people come together and make laws for the benefit of the country for example, here in the united states people have the right to vote, have equal rights, pursuit of happiness and practice in any religion of your choice. ancient athens did not have a true democracy. In ancient athens Women, free foreigners and slaves were excluded from voting, the government body could decide if you were a citizen or not. Also, women weren't allowed to vote unless they married a citizen. Therefor there constitution did not favor democracy.
Unlike our government, the people of Athens ran their government, compared to our government, where we elect representatives to run our government for us. “First, democracy is the rule of the whole of the people, excluding minors and maniacs only” (Doc D). The only people who had a say in the Athenian government were the male citizens. Women, children, and slave had no say whatsoever. The males had all the say on what they felt the city-state needed in
Req. : Doc. E) "Almost every prominent statesman of Athens... took one of these 10-year vacations, courtesy of the Athenian people," illustrating a form of citizen accountability and involvement in the political process through direct voting mechanisms. Many of the more prominent leaders were sent to have their own 10-year sabbatical so they could get their break from Athens. “Ostracism is as follows:
The Greeks where the first democracy in the world. There government was made up of six thousand members all of witch where male citizens. They voted on problems that needed to be solved and if a law was to pass a majority vote was needed. Now in the United States also has a democracy. Instead of having six thousand people voting and making the decisions all the people vote on a representative that makes the decisions in the country.
Athens was and still is known as the original culture to create the ideal of democracy and was the first democracy in the ancient world. (Pomeroy, 2012)(Levack, Muir, & Veldman, 2011). However; Ancient Athenians were not an equal society, they reserved citizenship for only a select group within the population.
Moreover, the political activities in Greek were recommendable for it treated individuals in a way that they had right to choose their leaders through the introduction of “demokratia” which means rule by people. Therefore, through using of the democratic governance most areas adopted their political culture,
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
The Athens used a form of government called a direct democracy. It was a direct democracy because not just politicians attended the Assembly. This democracy included elected officials some of which were strategos (generals) and archons (magistrates) The Assembly, in contrast, was open to all citizens and they were allowed to attend meetings and participate. The Assembly’s job was to make the policy
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.
Address the question of how Greek democracy ended. The Greek democracy, which began as a result of the political reformation by Cleisthenes, was indeed an envy of its era and the pride of the Athenian people. Being a clever political leader, Cleisthenes established a system, which he called demokratia, or “rule by the people”. This political reformation, which consists of three bodies- the ekklesia, the boule, and the dikasteria lasted for almost two centuries before its dramatic demise (Ancient Greek Democracy, 2010).
The had prosperous fields of barley and wheat that they prided themselves on. They were the true earth born in their eyes. Athenians were in their own little world since they were isolated from other states. They had superior skill in making pottery and it was the main merchant trade. They had a large gap between the rich Eupatrids and the poor countryside folk. The Eupatrids started to get to big of ahead and finally realized when they were beat by a village of pig-farmers that they could be defeated. They knew reform was needed and appointed Solon to do the job. He knew he needed to give some power back to the working class. He made them debt free and gave them the right to vote. Although this seemed awesome in the beginning, they quickly realized the stipulations. They would soon be in debt again, and they couldn’t voice their opinion about laws or issues that affected their lives. Athens did well after that, although they never left the aristocracy governing. It was indeed a democracy, but it was only for men to spread their opinion and common people to only vote.
Ancient Greece was one of the first democratic societies and has greatly influenced modern day governments. Although the Greek idea of democracy is different from what is practiced today, their ideas formed the basis for modern democratic governments. Prior the invention of democracy, citizens had no rights and there were no guidelines for who was considered a citizen. Democracy gave voting rights and the ability to hold office to citizens – free men born in Greece, usually landowners. Today’s modern democracy is accessible to all people and has a higher degree of organization and hierarchy, it still derives its basic prinicples from Greek democracy.