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Ancient Greece; Democracy Had Many Similarities to American Democracy, Corrupt and Beneficial to Rich.

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Ancient Greece democracy has been said to be the origin of modern democracy.

However, there are a few stark differences between Athenian democracy and American democracy, the main one is ordinary citizens could be selected for government offices and court appointments.

It could be effectively argued that just the principle of a government ruled by the governed, rather than government ruled by a monarch, is the model for American democracy, with a little bit of all of history in the mix hoping to favorably influence the outcome.

We cannot be sure the reference to the word ”democracy”, back in the third century BC, could be interpreted comparatively to the modern understanding of democracy, nor can we be certain that it was a functional form of government back then.

Actually, in reality, there is no perfect example of democracy proven in history or modern times where the masses really do have an effective voice in government; all systems of what is referred to as democracy operate within a limited framework of distribution of power.

There are several forms of rule that find some similarity with American democracy including timocracy, plutocracy, oligarchy and hegemony, but actual democracy and rule by the governed is not a reality in the world of organized government today, nor has it ever been.

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Is it an Oligarchy or Democracy?

Oligarchy, which is technically defined as ”few rule”, is a more accurate description of American government than democracy, and is probably also better representative of ancient Greece democracy than saying that the people govern themselves.

This is true because although there have been historical governments that referred to themselves as democratic, those same governments maintained restrictions on voting privilege therefore effectively censoring the right to participate based on certain criteria usually related to sex, religion or social status.

If a person’s right to participate in government were qualified by economic status, sex, religion or social status today, it would be considered discriminatory and against the law and it certainly could not be considered democratic under the dictionary definition of democratic.

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Contradictory Definition

As defined by The New Oxford American Dictionary, ”democracy” is: ”control of an organization or group by the majority of its members; the practice or principles of social equality; a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives”.

It is contradictory in and of itself to categorize any form of political government as ”equality”, when there are always certain members of society who are excluded from participation when a majority decides, those being the minority.

Including ancient Greece democracy, how can any government boast of being democratic when a certain group of citizens will never be allowed the privilege of participation in the decision making process due to restriction by the system of government based on social status or other dividing factors.

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Ancient Greece Democracy

A truly democratic government would not require a citizen to invest hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, on a campaign to get elected, when it can be reasonably determined that the ordinary citizen will never possess the capacity to raise the necessary funds, therefore excluding them from participation.

How can it be said that American government is representative of democracy when there is not one single ordinary citizen involved in governmental policy making, as most are attorneys or business majors and they certainly do not make up the majority of the common labor force.

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