The Pros And Cons Of An Athenian Democracy

In the past week I have read different documents about the Ancient Athens and whether or not it was a true democracy. To sum up all the documents my hypothesis was true. I believed they weren't a true democracy. Athens wasn’t a true Democracy because Demokratia was ruled by male citizens only which made up 12% of the population. Women, slaves, and foreigners weren't allowed to vote.

In the Athenian government the people had a lot of power through the use of the voting system. In the Athenian constitution Aristotle wrote “(Doc B) The democracy has made itself master of everything and administers everything by its votes in the assembly and by the law-courts”. So the Athenian assembly

Athens was Democraticless Democracy can be defined as the power of the people. For example, America is a democracy. Athens claimed to be a democracy. Based on recorded speeches and the Athenian Constitution they did not favor the people. In some ways they did, but there is credible evidence showing Athens was not a democracy. There are statistics, facts, and examples. For instance, in a speech by Aristotle, he states, the citizens had to vote a new citizen. Voting is unjust based on citizens unfair judgments. If the potential citizen is declined citizenship, he must have a trail. If the citizen loses, he is then sold as an Athenian slave. Both of those laws do not favor the people. It is very easy for current citizens to mistreat the system.

The citizens had a great deal of power regarding the fact that the majority of the decisions made were influenced by the citizens, but only if they were eligible. About 9% of the Athenian population was permitted to vote; those people held a lot of control (Doc 3). Being as though the percentage is significantly small, those were the people that were considered eligible, which all relates to a democracy; a government for those who are eligible. The Athenian government had put specific rules in place that were meant to protect their citizens. Everything that happened in their society was meant to benefit them substantially (Doc 7).

When evaluating the government of ancient Athens, some might say that it was a democracy, however, it can be better described as an oligarchy: a form of government in which a small group of people has the power and control (Doc. D by Mogens Herman Hansen). A democracy takes all the citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account, unlike an oligarchy that only takes the male citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account. Thus, Athens is more similar to an oligarchy than a democracy. The people of Athens also decide as a whole what the best government for their city-state was, as opposed to a democracy where the people elect representatives to make decisions for them and their city-state. Athens could be seen as not a true democracy because of the lack of basic democratic rules and methods such as what they define democracy as, who is able to vote, and how they vote.

The Athenian democracy went as far as being a government by the people within the narrow confines of the polis.# The citizens could pursue their private interests. They were also allowed to seek the seek the highest goals by placing their interests at the service of the city.#Pericles stated during the Funeral Oration at Samos that Athens was a “free state, both in politics and in social life.”# People might say it wasn’t fair because Pericles made Athenian citizenship limited to adult males who had an Athenian mother and father.# Citizens who wanted to, could try to achieve their private goals and manage their private affairs. They could have their interests at the service of the city to help them seek what they desire. “Pericles believed that man’s capacities and desires could be fulfilled at the highest possible level only through government participation.”# The government that allowed you the most active participation in government was a direct democracy, so Pericles chose that form of government for Athens.

Athens and Sparta were two powerful city-states, different from each other where Athenian democracy focused on economic advancement, while Sparta oligarchy focused on military force. Democracy is a system of government where citizens have the right to vote, whereas oligarchy is a system of government where only a group of people is in control and only their opinion or decision that were taken into consideration. Leading to the thesis statement that people are better served by Athenian democracy than the Spartan oligarchy, supported in three evidence points. Firstly, Athenian democracy allowed citizens participation in government that gave them freedom to vote and take part in legislation. Secondly, the Athenian government provided Athenian men better education, by being taught how to read and write to reach their academic advancement. Lastly, the Athenian democracy’s contribution to Athens military advancement that protected its citizens.

Aristotle once said, “In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.” To make democratic ideas work to their advantages, the people of Athens had to vote for superiors, rather than simply observe. Like other forms of government, democracy has its strengths and its weaknesses. It was very organized and fair, giving people rights and freedoms, and participation in the rule of the city. Though, there were some negatives.

Fear, greed, shame. These are all primal emotions that are at the foundation of human instinct and threats that all states face, regardless of their form of government. At its core, a democracy places its power in the hands of its people and, in doing so, relies on their judgement to determine their course. The system of direct democracy in Athens maximized the freedom for its citizens to establish their ideals and work toward them in times peace. But in times of war and plague, those ideals quickly fall to the wayside in favor of irrational fear.

Greek democracy was best developed in the city-state of Athens from where the very word “democracy”, meaning “the rule of the people” stems. People ‘ruled’ by electing officials through lot and making important decisions by majority rule. Democracy was direct, meaning that the Athenians “allowed the whole citizenry to assemble in the central eklisia, or the equivalent today of the main city hall, to vote on important issues” (Makedon 1995). In this sense, Athenian democracy differed from representative democracy that is currently prevalent in most states, in which officials are elected through democratic vote and then given authority to make decisions for the people. In Athens, elected officials were paid, but the pay was very low so that it compared with the wages of the poorest citizens and only covered the compensation of their time and effort.

Unlike Athenian Democracy, Rome was ruled as a republic. “ Republic” was a government controlled by the people. It was not a democratic system, in the sense of Athenian democracy. Because political power in Rome was in the hands of wealthy aristocrats, the Roman Republic was best described as an elected oligarchy. The government of the Roman Republic comprised in three

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The Athenian government was a direct democracy, meaning the citizens of the city-state take absolute control over any vote. This was the plan for the government to control their people since the citizens

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