Preview

What Was The Role Of Democracy In Athens

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
275 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Was The Role Of Democracy In Athens
Did you know that world leaders do not exactly agree on what a democracy means. A democracy’s most salient and universally agreed upon component is a voting system. Athens was not truly democratic because they had slaves, no woman rights, and no equal rights.

The first reason Athens wasn’t truly democratic is that they had slaves. Slaves were viewed as insignificant, vapid people, for this reason they did not get to vote. Since they were classified as slaves, they didn’t have the privilege to participate in anything, similar to women.

Subsequently, women probably didn’t get an education and because of that they did not have half the knowledge male citizens did. Like the slaves, women did not get to vote, it was all on the men who were citizens that made all the decisions.
…show more content…
Only male citizens could vote, they could decide whether boys of 18 years of age became a citizen or not. If it’s decided that the person has no right to become a citizen, he was sold as a slave. They could also vote a man out of office; they would meet up and would vote on the question “ Is anyone becoming a threat?”, if they voted yes, they’d select a person and if the others agreed they would exile the man for ten years. Athens was not truly democratic since they had slaves, no woman rights’, and no equal rights. The men had all the power and no true democracy would be like that. These are all the reasons I believe that Athens was not truly

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Greek Civilization Dbq

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Part of Pericles’ plan for Athens was to increase the number of public officials with paid salaries and use direct democracy. Pericles plan for democracy was also for the poor to not be discriminated for social rankings. He also wanted the citizens to serve his country at any position on the social scale but you have to be a defined citizen. Pericles once stated “…power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people”. Athens went through a period of time of power struggles between the rich and poor. Today there are many countries that use democracy as a form of government.…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    #2 Athenian democracy became from an imperialism system is a process of transformation. While Imperialism creation of cities were they controlled trade, military, and commerce, they believed citizens have the right to be part on the decision making of codes and laws creating on this way the assembly system were men owner of property and older than 18 were allow to vote and participate on the assembly. Being a little contradictory because not all Athenians were consider citizens and also excluding gran part of them from the right to vote.…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ancient Athens has two documents that discuss democracy. The first one is “Document A: Pericles” and the other one is “Document B: The The Athenian Constitution”. In document A, I found that is truly democratic because your social class is not allowed the interfere with someone's merit. For example, if you’re poor you’re still able to serve the state or be part of the government. In document A it also states that “you get equal justice.” And that’s the way it should be. The constitution favor many people instead of few people. It seems fair and gives equality to all regardless of social class.…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Han China Dbq Essay

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Athens had a bit of a different form of government called a democracy. The citizens of Athens decided who would rule their country. “No man is kept out of public…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    More so, political equality was tremendously different from the formation of a republican government to the present. Only white, property-owning males were allowed in governmental matters during and after the making of the Constitution. The founding fathers didn’t foresee women and people of color being granted power to vote. Even with Rome’s prosperity with a republican government, they gradually lost all democratic values and became a dictatorship. As John Adams declared, "[D]emocracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." Paradoxically, Athens had too much democracy, and failed to make decisions during a crisis such as wartime operations. Sparta on the other hand, was too involved with the common good that they lacked individual rights and became an oligarchy that let elitists rule. This proved to be difficult and ultimately lead to the demise of their society.…

    • 630 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Soon after, Solon became the leader. He outlawed slavery based on debt and made four classes of citizens – this time divided by wealth, not ancestry. Only members of the top three classes could hold public office, but all citizens could vote in the assembly. Citizens were all resident, free, adult males. He also set up the Council of Four Hundred, which prepared topic to be discussed by the other council, and introduced the notion that any citizen could report someone that they think broke a law. Democracy was started in order to have isonomia, an ancient Greek term meaning “equality of all.” With only about 10% of the Athenian population being citizens, and only some of even those able to hold public office, this clearly wasn’t yet achieved, and it is nothing like the modern democracies today. Still, the concept of the general public being able to participate in their governments was very new and this was already a huge step forward.…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Athens considered themselves a democratic state of government but in more ways than none it is not a true democracy. The definition of democracy is “a system of government by the whole population.” There were some ways that Athens was democratic in some ways because they had representatives for the government but overall it was still undemocratic because representatives in the courts and council were chosen randomly. The only ones allowed to vote were males that made up a very small amount of the population, Democracy is supposed to be everyone has the right to vote, but Athens had different ideas of what democracy truly meant.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    On the other hand, They weren’t a democracy because only men and free slaves were allowed to vote, but not the other half of the society such as women and slaves. In addition, they couldn’t vote to determine which candidate they officially…

    • 165 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Week 3 Democracy Paper

    • 695 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The first well-known democracy was in Athens. Though other Greek cities set up democracies none were as powerful, stable or as well documented as Athens. Athens democracy had some of the highest rate of participation known. There are few reasons why Ancient democracy differs from modern democracy. One being that the Athenian democracy was exclusive. Only certain people could participate. Another difference was the main bodies of governance; The Assembly, the Boule, and the Courts. Finally the legal system was less challenging in Ancient Athens.…

    • 695 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Like Mesopotamia, Athens might be well known for their system of law and order. Athens saw the beginning of democracy and government like we know it today. In Athens, government now included citizens, not just representatives like in previous systems. For one of the first times in history, regular citizens could play key roles in how their community and government was…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Athenian democracy was guided by the principle of isonomy. Isonomy basically means that everyone in Athens is equal before the law, and all citizens have equal participation in creating the law (Breaugh, 2011). Even though citizens are equal in the political sphere, they were not equal in other areas of the polis. The lower classes in Athenian democracy were equal in the sense that they had an equal to vote on the laws, and to have a say in issues that would impact the polis, but the lower class citizens had more to lose by participation, because of pay loss (Breaugh, 2011). Therefore, until the Athenian government introduced compensation of these people, the lower class citizens would not exercise their right to equal participation. As Athenian democracy evolved, the lower classes of the polis participated equally in the assembly, and could possibly have a chance to rule. In the statement Plato says, “Dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike”. The classes were only part of what Plato meant. The people who were not citizens were also given a sort of equality, but not in the polis. Although people who were not citizens of Athens could not participate in the political life in the polis, they had a ’sort of’ equality in Athens (Breaugh, 2011). Slaves had to be treated fairly, although they had no residency rights, or the right to legal advice. Slaves were considered part of the household; they could participate in religious ceremonies, and had basic legal rights. Unlike in most areas with slaves, they could buy their freedom back in the Athenian polis (Breaugh, 2011). Metics were a very important part of the Athenian economy. The only reason that Metics were not allowed to participate was that it was believed that it was impossible to be economically prosperous, and have an active political life. Metics were equal in other aspects, including responsibilities to the polis, including military service.…

    • 1801 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ancient Athens was not truly democratic. First off, democracy is a system of government in which power is invested in the people who rule either directly or through freely elected represenative. An example of democracy; You have two treats, the dogs can pick only one treat to eat. I will let them both pick, and not only one. Democracy is equal. Ancient Athens wasn’t.…

    • 212 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Pericles Funeral Oration

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The fact that women are treated differently proves that the Athens were not a democratic state their laws to provide fairness to all the people were only catered to the males not the females. The Athens had a negative attitude towards woman and how they should be treated, Pericles seemed almost disgusted to even have to address woman in his speech and when he did he had nothing positive to say about them.…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There were several key reasons why women were not given the right to vote when our founding fathers wrote the Constitution. The emphasis at the time was based on property not the pursuit of happiness, the wording was not meant for citizens but for persons, there was a strong link between those who armed themselves to fight for the United States should be the ones allowed to vote, and during this time period it was felt that politics should be reserved for men. A strong cultural belief such as this does not change easily; it would certainly take at least a generation to pass before the next generation would start looking at things in a new light. Also, during this time period everything was dominated by men. Men ran the households, and then ran the church, they handled the business and government and women were expecting to take care of the household and raise children. It would be many years before any type of consideration towards woman suffrage would even be taken seriously.…

    • 2809 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Medea and Democracy

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How does the society that gave us the democratic government of equality for all show such discrimination? Athenian government in ancient Greece was an incomplete democracy that has developed over time. The Treatment of women and foreigners in Euripides' ancient Greek world is less civilized than in democratic societies existing today.…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays