507 B.C.‚ the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia‚ or rule by the people. Which is modern day Democracy meaning the rule of the people. That is where each person votes about what they would like to happen. Whatever has the most votes wins‚ obviously. There is no king or dictator to say no to one’s vote. One problem that immediately comes up in a democracy is who is going to be able to vote. Can anyone vote? Should there be an age limit? Do
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Prospects For Democracy “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule‚ where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” “Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either [aristocracy or monarchy]. Remember‚ democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes‚ exhausts‚ and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” It is the year 2010. Democracy has become so successful that countries who ’ve enjoyed it are trying to share
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People often refer to the United States as a democracy‚ yet if one were to ask a citizen of Athens in XXX bc how they would classify the American government structure‚ I seriously doubt that they would agree. Athens on the other hand was a democracy‚ and a successful one for a short time. However‚ no country or state wants to be successful for just a short time‚ the longing is to rule sovereign for centuries upon centuries as a great and powerful nation. Unfortunately for Athens democratic state
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The Athenian democracy in the Golden Age functioned somewhat like ours does today. Athenian countryside was divided into areas called demes. In each of these demes‚ registers they kept track of which citizens were eligible to attend the assembly and vote on laws and public policies. Each Deme was then grouped into 10 tribes for other political functions‚ such as choosing representatives for the council of five hundred citizens. The number of representatives chosen from each deme was proportional
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ATHENIAN GOVERNMENT & DEMOCRACY ATHENIAN GOVERNMENT & DEMOCRACY Ever wonder where and how democracy began? According to an article entitled “Athenian Government Prior to Democracy”; ancient Athens is credited with having developed one of the first democracies on this earth (1). Blackwell states that the name democracy comes from “demos-people and kratos-power”‚ meaning “power of the people” (2). Mills states that Athenian democracy did not come about easy‚ yet it was through
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agree that democracy is the best form of government. As a result‚ their outlook upon the first great democratic system in Western civilization is largely affected by their own predilection. Others‚ however‚ can see major flaws in Athenian democracy. These opposing stances are no recent development. The positives and negatives of this form of government have been argued and deliberated ever since it first transpired‚ nearly 25 centuries ago. Indeed‚ most of the criticism made of democracy today was
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Introduction The birth of democracy in Sparta and Athens was a long‚ painful journey‚ created by wars‚ cruel leaders‚ and heroic figures. Although many of democracy’s ideas came from Athenian government‚ it was very different from the democracy in the United States‚ for example. In general‚ wealthy aristocrats had the most power. But without the ideas that this time period created‚ who knows where we would be now. In this paper‚ I’m going to outline how democracy came to be in early Athenian and Spartan governments
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structures of these two city-states. Athens would become the first democracy that humans would create‚ while Sparta would sacrifice stature and power to maintain the restrictive government and institutional forms needed to prop up their warrior culture. Athenian citizens were counted as all free‚ native-born males over the age of 20. Women‚ foreigners‚ and slaves were excluded from political power and input. The main body of Athenian government was the Assembly‚ which consisted of all of the citizens
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Athens Democracy The first person to define democracy was an Athenian leader called Cleisthenes. He called it Demokratia‚ which meant rule by people. In their democracy‚ only male citizens who were older than eighteen could participate. Demokratia gave a strong structure to the Athenian government‚ which served as a model for future governments in the world. The Demokratia had three main institutions. The first one is the Ekklesia‚ which is an assembly in which all qualified citizens could participate
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Greek democracy first arose in Athens‚ for a short period of time. In the following paragraphs‚ the rise of Greek democracy‚ as well as the background and reasoning behind how it rose and fell‚ will be discussed. First‚ Athens became a democracy‚ but it was not always a democracy. In the period between 800 and 500 BCE‚ Athens had aristocrats that had taken control of most of the good land‚ as well as gaining much of the political power in the city. People that were either poorer or middle class
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